WOW!! Makeshift Line-up Wins BIG ONE for Rush
Jeff Sims
Tuesday June 22, 2010
I don’t think ANYBODY in the Allstate Arena or anyone with a good knowledge of Arena Football thought that the Chicago Rush had a chance on Saturday night against the Milwaukee Iron.
In a big game that would give the winner first place in the Midwest division, the Rush were without their starting quarterback, Russ Michna and leading wide receiver, Samie Parker. Both of them had to attend a mandatory mini-camp for the United Football League’s Las Vegas Locomotives. Both played on the UFL team last season and plan on returning to the team after the AFL season ends (hey, if I were making $50,000 - $60,000 per season playing in the UFL versus the $400 - $1000 per week salary of the AFL, I would be at mini-camp too!!!).
In addition to Michna and Parker, the Rush were without the other three wide receivers on their opening day roster. Kenny Higgins and Nichiren Flowers are both on injured reserve and will be out for at least another two games and Allan Turner had a family emergency and was not with the team.
Starting defensive end Michael Alston was also not with the team due to the death of his grandfather and starting offensive lineman Shawn McMackin is on injured reserve due to a broken thumb.
To further complicate matters, wide receiver Travis LaTendresse, who has filled in for the team since Higgins and Flowers got injured, and starting fullback Robert Boss did not arrive at the arena until less than two hours before game time. LaTendresse lives in Utah and works for a Telecommunications company during the week. He was paying his own way (basically his game check) to fly to Chicago to play for the team. His flight was delayed and was just able to make it in time for pre-game. Boss also had a flight delay as he was attending to a family situation.
In order to make sure the team had enough receivers for the week, the team signed Slyvelle Newton (South Carolina) and Marco Thomas (Western Illinois). Newton would start the game along with LaTendresse and veteran linebacker DeJuan Alfonso as the team’s receiving corp.
The team also signed lineman Chris Merkle from Montclair State to fill the void on the line.
“This was probably the most stressful week I have ever had working as a head coach,” said Rush head coach Mike Hohensee emphatically before the game. “But I think we are ready.”
Well outside of the team he had to be the only one to think so!!
“We talked about succeeding from day one when we put the game plan together,” said Hohensee. “ We talked about succeeding with new players. We may have had four or five new faces on this football team, but we had 14 – 15 that weren’t new, that knew how to play football.”
One of those players getting his first start of the season was rookie QB JJ Raterink. (Is he really a rookie if he played in AF2; since they are supposedly combining the record books?) Here is a quarterback with little game experience this season now being forced to play with a defensive specialist (Alfonso) and two other receivers that he has not played with. You can certainly say the odds were not in his favor.
Now let’s put yet another wrinkle into this already tumultuous scenario. Your team has a couple of fumbles in the first half and at one point is down 28 – 7. Game over, right? Not in the eyes of the Rush.
“We had a couple things go wrong early against us,” said Raterink. “We had a couple of fumbles early. Those things happen and you just have to settle down and overcome those.”
From that point on, the Rush outscored the Iron 56 to 28 for the rest of the game. Raterink was very impressive along the way finishing the game without an interception and completing 26 of 37 passes for 296 yards and five touchdowns.
Newton was the team’s leading receiver with 10 catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns. Latendresse continues to catch touchdowns as three of his seven receptions were for scores after catching three touchdowns on four receptions the week before in Utah.
As always, the Chicago Rush defense was solid all game long. After mixing up the line-up in the first half with Alfonso only playing on offense, the second half they went back to what they know. With the All-Pro jack linebacker in the line-up, the team was able to move Clifton Smith back to his mack linebacker position and get more pressure on Iron QB Chris Greisen. The defense was able to record two interceptions in the second half. The first came in the middle of the third quarter when DB Chris Martin picked off a pass intended for Damian Harrell. The Rush scored and were able to score on their possession to tie the game.
As the teams match score for score for the rest of the game, Mister Everything, DeJuan Alfonso, came up huge again. With the game tied and 43 seconds to play, he went back into the endzone after Greisen pumped faked a pass. He picked off the pass and returned the ball 54 yards for the winning touchdown.
The makeshift Chicago Rush had done the impossible!!!!!
Everyone in the Allstate Arena on Saturday night knew they were witnessing something special as the second half progressed. While there were only over eight thousand fans in the building, the end of the game felt like a game winner that happened two seasons ago when the building was full.
When asked after the game about the win and the circumstances around it, coach Hohensee could only grin from ear to ear.
“This was definitely the most rewarding win (of my career), no doubt about it!”