Costly turnovers doom Wildcats
April 26, 2008 - arenafootball2 (af2)
South Georgia Wildcats News Release
In a battle for South Division supremacy, the Florida Firecats took advantage of two South Georgia Wildcat fumbles in the third quarter to score 14 points to take a two score lead 41-28 and never looked backed in route to a 51-41 win in Albany, Georgia Saturday night.
Both teams played conservative football all night as the longest completion of the game for either team would be 29 yards. Chris Wallace led a balanced efficient attack for the Firecats finishing the night with 285 yards passing and 4 touchdowns. His counterpart Andrico Hines threw for only 166 yards and 4 touchdowns as the offense for theWildcats struggled all night to find any kind of momentum.
The two teams traded touchdowns the entire first half. Hines found wide-outs Antwone Savage and P.J. Berry each for touchdown passes and rushed for one of his own. Leading af2 rusher, James Gibson gave the Firecats their first touchdown of the first half with a 2 yard touchdown run and Chris Wallace found wide-outs Matt Burnstein and Chris McKinney for touchdowns as the Wildcats went to the half with a 21-20 lead.
The Wildcats opened the third quarter with a 4 play, 47 yard drive that ended with a P.J. Berry 16 yard touchdown reception to take a 28-20 lead but Florida would answer with a 40 yard kickoff return by James Panui and then two plays later Chris Wallace would find Matt Burnstein for a 15 yard reception to cut the South Georgia lead to 28-27. Burstein would finish the night leading all Firecat wide receivers with 11 receptions for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns. Following the Florida touchdown, the Wildcats would march the ball past mid-field but on a 6 six yard run up the middle of the Firecats defense fullback Melvin Parris would fumble the football to Florida. Following the fumble, Florida was able to move the ball into the redzone of the Wildcats. The Wildcats would hold Florida for three straight plays but after an incompletion from Wallace on third down, Wildcats defensive lineman was called for two unsportsmanlike penalties giving the Firecats a fresh set of downs which they turned into a second James Gibson rushing touchdown of the night. The Firecats would pin the Wildcats deep on the kick-off as P.J. Berry could not get out of the endzone. On South Georgia's first offensive play Andrico Hines would find Berry for a quick out at the 5 yard line where Berry then fumbled the football. Defensive Back Tony Stubbs would recover the fumble for the Firecats and return it for a touchdown giving Florida a 41-28 lead and creating a hole to deep for the Wildcats to overcome.
P.J. Berry would return a kick-off 57 yards for touchdown to offer a little excitement for the Wildcats fans but it would not be enough. Chris McKinney and Antwone Savage would both catch 4th quarter touchdown passes for their respective teams and Garrett Rivas would add a 25 yard field goal to give Florida a 10 point lead with 4:03 remaining. The Wildcats tried to make it interesting at the end but what would have been a 6 yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 3 with 26.1 seconds remaining in the game went in and out of the hands of Antwone Savage, who would finish the night with 7 receptions for 50 yards and 2 touchdowns, and into the hands of Matt Burstein for the interception to seal the win for the Firecats.
With the win the Firecats improved to 4-0 on the season and 3-0 within the South division as they head home this week to host the Peoria Pirates on Saturday night May 3rd. With the loss the South Georgia falls to 3-2 on the year and 2-1 in the South division as they head on the road to face the Austin Wranglers Sunday afternoon May 4th.
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