Pioneers Make Playoff Push
Michael Balakier
Monday June 17, 2002
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton exploded early in the first quarter, capitalizing on Mohegan’s mistakes by scoring 28 unanswered points, and withstood the Wolves pesky passing game in the second half to move into third place in the division.
The victory marks the first time all season that the Pioneers have not been in the basement of the Northeast division. More importantly, New Haven’s loss bumped Wilkes-Barre/Scranton into third place and put the Pioneers within one game of second place Rochester.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton OS John Knust, who finished the game with nine receptions for 119 yards and three touchdown, is one of many players on the team that are glad to be out of the Northeast basement.
“It feels great,” said Knust. “We’re playing together and playing hard.”
Pioneers FB/LB Kevin Nagle added that the team’s confidence keeps building with each victory.
“If we just keep believing and practicing hard,” said Nagle, “then we’re going to come out and win games every week, that’s the way we’re looking at it.”
However, despite his team’s movement in the standings, Pioneers head coach Terry Karg views things differently.
“I don’t really look at the standing like that,” said Karg. “It looks a little better, but I’m still looking at Rochester.”
One thing Karg has noticed though is the improvement in his team’s play since their 0-6 start.
“I think we’re starting to play to our ability, and that’s what you want,” said Karg. “When you’ve got some good football players, you’re goal is to get them to play together and at their ability. We’re starting to do some good things, but we’re going to keep working and bottom line is we don’t want to get content right now. If we get content, we’ll find ourselves out, with no shot of the playoffs and losing games.”
With the victory, the Pioneers move one step closer to the final playoff spot in the Northeast division. With five games remaining, including two against New Haven and one against Rochester, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will need to continue to play the type of football that they have played so successfully over the past five weeks. If Saturday night’s win over Mohegan was any indication of what the last few weeks of the season may hold, then post-season play could be just around the corner.
Game Notes
Under the carpet: After Pioneers QB Bryan Snyder threw his last touchdown pass of the game, he ran into the end zone, grabbed his hand towel and proceeded to brush the letter ‘P’ of the Pioneers. “I just wanted to brush off the ‘P’ to say, ‘Hey, even though we started slow, we’re back in the playoff hunt, so let’s brush this ‘P’ off and start making a run at things,’” said Snyder. Snyder added that it was a bet and a stupid thing to do, but Snyder’s actions proved to be a worthy expression.
Chewing each other out: In a season filled with injuries, Mohegan head coach Gary Porter said that he told his players before the game that he was ashamed of himself for blaming some of their losses on their injuries. However, despite near the top rankings in total offense and defense, the Wolves have more problems on their hands than just injuries.
“We’ve got some problems with in our team right now with a couple of abrasive attitudes,” said Porter. “We’re going to make some personnel changes this week and get rid of a couple of guys that we need to get rid of and shake it up.” Porter also said that two Mohegan players broke into a fight in the locker room prior to the start of the game. Porter also commented on his team’s slow start. “I think we got what we deserved in the first quarter. If we start off better, we’re in the game. I told the guys at halftime they deserved to be exactly where they were.”
Michael Balakier first discovered a knack for writing during his senior year in high school while reporting for his school`s newspaper. Aside from being an Arenaball fan, Michael is an avid Syracuse University athletics follower, which poses a problem for him, as he attends the University of Pittsburgh. Michael plans on using what he has learned through his Arenafan experience to remain as impartial as he can during future Syracuse/Pitt events. Michael also serves as co-Editor of the af2 section of Arenafan Online.
