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Bandits Visit Riverhawks Saturday

May 18, 2005 - American Indoor Football Association (AIFA)
Richmond Bandits News Release


The Richmond Bandits indoor football team will ride into Johnstown, Pa., for the first of two consecutive games away from the hideout in Atlantic Indoor Football League (AIFL) play. Richmond will face the Riverhawks at 7:05 pm on Saturday, May 21.

Fans can follow all of the action from the Cambria County War Memorial Arena online at www.radiorichmond.com.

After back-to-back home victories, the Bandits find themselves with a 3-1 overall record, tied for first place with the Erie Freeze, a team which handed Richmond its lone setback of the season in Week Two. The Riverhawks enter Saturday's contest with a 2-2 mark, with both losses coming to the Freeze.

Richmond used last second heroics in its previous game, downing the Canton Legends 74-69 at home on May 14. The 74 points the Bandits put up were an AIFL record, surpassing the previous record also set by Richmond in Week One when they hung 66 on the Ghostriders in the inaugural game.

The Bandits started very well behind quarterback Will Burch. The signal-caller completed his first 21 pass attempts en route to a 25-for-33 performance, amassing 339 yards and eight touchdowns.

Bandits' head coach Rik Richards was more than pleased with the performance of his starting QB, who currently leads the AIFL in total offense and is completing 71-percent of all his pass attempts.

"That's why we got (Burch). He is our franchise player and our leader, and he really showed that poise tonight," said Richards.

Three of Burch's scoring strikes went to Redd Thompson, who hauled in tallies of 18, 28, and 30 yards on the night. But none was bigger than the latter 30-yard strike with 10.9 seconds showing on the Richmond Coliseum game clock. Thompson had to wrestle it away from Legends' defenders at the one-yard line and fall into the endzone for the points, which moved him into second in the league in scoring (68 total points).

Even then, though, the game was not in the bag until DeAndre Green made an interception in the endzone as time expired giving the Bandits' their second-consecutive win. Green added 143 yards receiving and three touchdowns on 12 catches in the win.

Johnstown enters Saturday's game after its second loss to Erie last weekend, 60-34. The Riverhawks, who were playing their first road game of the season, were outscored 21-6 by the Freeze down the stretch in the loss which snapped their two-game win streak.

The ‘Hawks are led by quarterback Tony Zimmerman, who began the 2005 season with the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats. He completed 78-of-130 passes with the Kats including nine touchdowns and three interceptions. Last weekend, Zimmerman was 17-of-37 for 171 yards and four touchdowns. However, he did toss four interceptions, something that the ball-hawking Richmond Bandits are hoping to force again this weekend. The Bandits lead the AIFL in takeaways with 11 picks and four recovered fumbles through the first four games.

Zimmerman's favorite target last week was Quenteen Robinson, who hauled in nine catches for 96 yards and three of the four Riverhawk receiving touchdowns. Robinson leads the league in all-purpose yards, averaging 104 per contest.

"It will be a battle," said Richards. "Zimmerman is a good quarterback and Robinson is a great receiver with the ability to make plays. It will be a tough chore to limit his impact on the game because it's hard to shut a guy like that out. But I'm confident in our defense, even after our struggles last week. I know we can get the job done offensively, it will be a matter of doing the deed on defense like we've done before to get the win on the road."

Defensively, Johnstown leads the league with 15 sacks, five more than the Bandits have hauled down opposing QB's this season. So the test for the high-powered Richmond offense could begin up front in giving Burch protection.

In addition to leading the league in yards per game (281.7), Richmond also leads the AIFL in scoring, totaling 235 total points thus far for an average of 58.75 points per game. The Bandits also employ three of the top seven receivers in the league as Thompson and Green are joined by former Virginia Tech standout Bryan Still among league leaders. Still has seven TD receptions on the season in just 19 total touches.

The Bandits will look to maintain its share of first place with the 7:05 kickoff this Saturday at Johnstown.



American Indoor Football Association Stories from May 18, 2005


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