Good teams find a way to win
Eric Tabor
Monday June 4, 2007
The upset of the year came up short. The South Georgia Wildcats couldn’t do squat in the second half and let the opportunity of spanking an average Corpus Cristi Sharks team fall through the cracks. Geez, this one really hurts.
Is it the quarterback? How about the offensive line? The receivers? The defense? What about the coaching staff? Who is to blame for the Wildcat’s lackluster performance against Corpus Christi and this troubling lethargy that beset the team for not minutes or series at a time, but an entire half?
"Not acceptable," said South Georgia Wildcat Receiver Scott Cloman. "Not acceptable at all. If we want to win a championship, we can't play like that."
The way I see it, there’s plenty of guilt to go around and ample self-inspection that should be underway at the Wildcats’ practice facility this week. No matter what terminology you use – not hitting on all cylinders, not playing together, playing in spurts, falling on our own swords (arghh) and the other coachspeak that accompanies such trying times – everyone’s to blame for South Georgia’s major meltdown Saturday night.
While the Sharks have come off a win and a bye week, there are mitigating factors.
For one, their players are adjusting to arena football, 18 of which are rookies – Mike Trigg is the franchises first head coach. There also have been injuries to, among others, the first- and second-string quarterbacks. The Sharks were without 5 starters against Arkansas five weeks ago. Finally, Corpus Christi's schedule to date has been very difficult.
On a night in which we enjoyed the first major rainfall in 45 days, it seemed to also rain on the cats parade. Coming into Saturday’s game, I was certain this game was going to be a blowout against a team with one of the worst records in the league.
Well, the prediction did not come to fruition.
At the end of the third stanza, South Georgia Wildcat Head Coach Derek Stingley, who was clearly upset about his squads play, called the entire team onto the field and challenged each of them to play like a championship team.
In the forth quarter with the Cats up 46-24, Corpus Christi started their run, aided by dropped interceptions, blown coverages, and an illegal defense call. Corpus Christi QB John De Los Santos hit Steve Smith on a 26-yard touchdown pass. Ike Chewka then was the recipient of a Tavaris Capers fumble on the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown to pull to within 8. South Georgia attempted to run out the clock but ended up fumbling the football back to Corpus Christi on their 22 yard line. The Sharks then scored on a 5-yard pass to pull to within two. The game came down to a two point conversion attempt. De Los Santos pitched to WR Steve Smith on an option pass, and Smith’s pass fell incomplete on the play. South Georgia took the football and was able to run out the clock to preserve the win.
"We (South Georgia) can't afford to have a bad day, have a bad game and not get better," Wildcat Fan Adrian Dyson said after the game. "We're not good enough to flip-flop around like tuna fish and then just show up and play."
The Wildcats survived Corpus Christi’s final flurry and overcame the emotion that was attached to the Sharks team. With all the negatives, there is a positive in this game, and the one that comes to mind: Good teams find a way to win.
South Georgia 46 - Corpus Christi 44
