Fire Come Out Alive in Sudden Death
Kevin Sedelmeier
Sunday May 29, 2005
This was an odd one from the outset. Within the first five minutes of the game, Bryant fumbled twice inside Albany’s own five-yard line with the Fire’s Lawrence Matthews and Rob Williams making the recoveries. The Fire capitalized on both gifts with short TD runs by Forney, who was back in his old RB/LB position. He must have liked it because, he went on to score a total of five rushing touchdowns and set a new team record. "It felt great. I love getting back. That’s my true position," said Forney.
It wasn’t until 3:40 left in the first quarter that Fire QB Matt Sauk attempted his first pass of the game. That wasn’t the only oddity of the half. The Fire were called for two illegal defense penalties. Then Rob Green made a nice interception of a Bryant pass on the goal line, but he fumbled the return, and Albany got the ball right back. After Louisville’s Paul White blocked an Albany PAT attempt that made it a 27-19 Fire halftime lead.
It wasn’t a comfortable distance for a half that saw the Fire up by 14 just five minutes into the game. An unfortunate call against the Fire happened when Dennis Fryzel’s touchdown on an interception return was nullified when lineman Derrick Shepard was not lined up in a three-point stance. The referee called it illegal procedure, a term I always thought was reserved for the offense. Go figure. The Fire escaped a jam with no time left on the clock when Forney was called for roughing the passer, giving Albany another attempt at a close touchdown, but Bryant’s pass fell incomplete to end the half.
The second half didn’t begin very auspiciously. Sauk fumbled the snap from center, and Albany recovered on the Fire’s own 17-yard-line. Another Bryant touchdown cut the Fire’s lead to 27-26. Then it was time for a little magic. Although the irrepressible magician Doug Henning used to say, "The world is full of illusion," the Fire used effort and alertness to ignite perhaps the most exciting play of the night. Sauk hit OS Rob Mager with a short pass. Mager, who is an excellent north-south runner, always leaning forward for extra yards, was stripped of the ball, but it landed in the hands of the Fire’s Cesare Manning, who made a nifty move and then outran the defense to score. "I just wanted to run over there and make a block for him, and being over there, the ball just happened to pop in my hands, so I just took it and ran with it, said Manning.
But after that excitement, the tide seemed to turn and the formerly rattled Bryant settled down for Albany and made some pinpoint scoring passes, and after his bomb to Manwell Talbert, the Fire’s lead was back to just one point at 34-33. Then the teams exchanged touchdown runs. The Fire’s Forney bullied his way in from short, and Albany’s Jeremiah Pope used a Barry Sanders-esque move to cut the Fire lead to two at 41-39.
With only 5:40 left in the game, Albany’s Pete McBride intercepted an underthrown Sauk pass intended for Rob Mager. When Pope scored again, and Albany deliberately took a delay of game for the two-point conversion and got it, Albany went up 47-41.
The zaniness continued when Sauk was called for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on the same play, giving the Fire a second and 22 with less than three minutes left. He obviously said something pretty inflammatory to the refs, and unlike Will Ferrell in Kicking & Screaming, I don’t think it was as tame as "You’re a jackal from hell!" But an Albany illegal defense saved the Fire. A Sauk to Mager TD made it 48-47 Fire, but Albany quickly answered with a Bryant rainbow to Buchie Ibeh. After another successful two-point conversion, Albany was back on top 55-48.
After the kick off return, the Fire had the ball on their 14 with 13 seconds left. It was enough time for Sauk and Mager to hook up again; it was the same play that early resulted in an interception. Not this time. Sauk is a veteran who learns from his mistakes and made a perfect throw when he had to. Mager was wide open and hit in stride. "As soon as I went high motion, I saw the db - the way he was playing me, they were just playing two deep," said Mager. "I was supposed to run a post. I was ready to give them some shimmies and shakes, and I just went and split them. I was wondering if he (Sauk) was going to throw it to me. Me and Matt were not really on the same page that last time. He thought I was going to cut it off, and I was going deep. We got our mistakes corrected and it worked out in the end."
Danny Kight made a pressure-packed PAT to tie the game at 55-55. Regulation ended with an Albany missed field goal and a resulting series of bumbling laterals that were no doubt perfect for a stumbling Dave Casper. Both teams had possession, it was just a desperate effort full of sound and fury but signifying nothing. So, what did the team say in the huddle before the overtime period? "We’re all grown men, and we want this game more than they do," said Matthews. "Just to start the second half of the season - you can’t lose these games at home. You’ve got to win every home game." And that’s what the Fire did.
Overtime belonged to the Fire’s Forney who busted off a 21-yard TD run and caused the Albany fumble to seal the game. Forney seemed to be on the field the entire game. It was amazing that he had any gas left in the tank. "I don’t," he said wit ha smile. "But you’ve got to suck it up. That’s what you’ve got to do. It’s iron man football, so you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do."
Fire Coach Tommy Johnson, while happy to win, wasn’t exactly elated, either. "You’ve got to try to find some positives out of every thing you do, even when it’s a loss, you’ve got to find some positives, but you’ve always got to keep getting better and correcting your mistakes, and we made a lot of them tonight," Johnson said. "We did some bad things on defense tonight. We’ve got to get stronger in the secondary…I know guys see things happen and they want to make plays so bad so they leave their zones, but they have to be disciplined," said Johnson, a former AFL defensive back.
One thing to Fire did improve on this week was catching the ball. Their were fewer drops than in recent weeks. "During this week at practice we– focused on the details. Looking the ball in and tucking the ball away," said Matthews.
So it was a game replete with fumbles, laterals, and unusual penalties. It was odd – OK not Chuck Barris odd, but unusual. What the Fire have been lacking in the execution of fundamentals at times, they make up for in effort and excitement. And after this OT win, they are staying alive (cue The Bee Gees) in the race for the lead in the American Conference East Division.
Manning said that "Arena ball is like a roller coaster; anybody can beat you." But this time, the Fire didn’t beat themselves.
Into the Fire
Demetrius Forney’s last TD run ended with him getting flipped over the end zone wall. He was letting up on the play, crossing the end zone line when he was pushed on the clean play. "It’s all fun and games. He wasn’t trying to hurt me, but it’s all good," said the affable Forney. "I got back up. I hurt my arm a little bit, but I’ll be OK." Good thing for Fire fans.
Venerable Freedom Hall is an historic sports showplace. It has a place in the hearts of most people in this city, but it indeed shows signs of wear. Bank of lights out on both sides of field were out until late in the first quarter. And a couple scoreboards weren’t working correctly, either. With the recent talk of the new arena suggesting that it will be a reality, it may be a good thing. Even the restrooms seem dated. On the wall of one bathroom stall, Van Halen was penciled in near Hogan’s Heroes. Grammatical woes aside, these seem like dated graffiti. They could have conceivably been on the wall for decades. While Hogan’s Heroes star Bob Crane probably wrote things on bathroom walls, this is a family column, and I can’t even surmise on their sordid nature.
The Wild Fires, the Fire cheerleaders, wore florescent tops for a part of the game, a new twist to their uniforms. No problem with that. They looked fine, but it did sort of suggest that they were auditioning for extra roles in a party scene of a John Hughes 80s teen movie.
The Indy Dog & Disc Club entertained at halftime. These owners and their dogs did some nice Frisbee catching tricks. Some of these dogs ran nice routes on the artificial surface. Maybe some are free agents and could get picked up. They may catch with their teeth, but there’s nothing in the af2 rulebook that says you can’t do that. This was one of the best halftime events in the Fire’s tenure. Of course the worst was that ill-fated halftime show featuring local band My Own Victim back in 2001. No, there were 12,000 victims in the audience that night. It’s recollections like this that make me say, "Thank you Will Wolford for buying and taking over this team in 2002."
Star Wars. The kids love it. Many parents love it. Well, a group of Stormtroopers showed up with Darth Vader and some of his other henchmen to mingle with the kids Saturday night. Vader was chunky but personable, shaking hands with fans. Who would have guessed that in person Vader has the body of Dom DeLuise? But he was a pleasant icon. He even had good penmanship as the autograph on some kids’ shirts proved. The Storm Trooper 1 signature was also very legible. I wonder what a Darth Vader autograph goes for on ebay.
Every game, a group of Fire fans sit by the visitors’ bench and raise a pleasant ruckus. They are clad in special t-shirts, firemen hats, and, most importantly, they carry cowbells. They play them throughout the game, both in celebration and in attempts to rattle opposing teams. I can’t pass this one up. I got a fever! And the only prescription is more cowbell!
Kevin Sedelmeier is a native Louisvillian. A graduate of the University of Louisville with a B.A. in Communication and M.A. in English, he works as a technical writer and has written fifteen screenplays and numerous short
stories. He lives with his wife Elizabeth, son Lukas, and their dog Springsteen.