Sports stats



Blitz Travel to Take on the Tri-Cities Fever

April 13, 2007 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Bakersfield Blitz News Release


BAKERSFIELD, CA - The Bakersfield Blitz escaped Laredo, TX two weeks ago with a 58-52 win over the Lobos. This weekend, the team is in Kennewick, WA to take on another af2 expansion team, the Tri-Cities Fever.

While the Fever is an expansion team on paper, they are experienced group lead by Head Coach Tony Wells. He carries a 4-7 overall record as an af2 head coach and he has also served as an offensive coordinator in the league.

"Coach Wells is a veteran and his teams are always well coached," said Blitz Head Coach Gary Compton (East Texas State University, '90), "We know they'll play sound football."

The strength of the Fever appears to be their passing game, which is lead by QB Brian Baker and a group of veteran wide receivers. Baker ranks sixth in the league in passing yards with 286 per game. WR J.R. Thomas had four touchdowns in the Fever's first game against Mahoning Valley.

"This might be the toughest wide receiving corps we'll face all season. They have a lot of good experience in that group," said Compton.

As for his own team, Coach Compton knows they have to make some improvements moving forward. "We need to find an offensive consistency. Against Laredo we sputtered a little bit, but we made some big plays when we needed to bail ourselves out," said Compton.

Several of those big plays came courtesy of WR/DB DeRonn Finley (Idaho State, '00), who had five touchdowns against the Lobos in Week 1 and currently averages 245 all-purpose yards per game.

After splitting the snaps with QB Alex Neist (Minnesota, '00), who was traded to Manchester during the bye week, QB Chad Elliott (Syracuse, '01) is expected to get all the work against the Fever this week.

"I've told Chad he's going to be our guy under center this week, but [QB] Dennis [Gile] is prepared and ready also," said Compton.

"I like knowing that the game is in my hands," said Elliott who was 8-16 for 146 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions against the Lobos in Week 1. "We know you can't overlook expansion teams in this league. Just look at Spokane last year. They were an expansion team in they won the ArenaCup," added Elliott.

Kickoff is set for 5:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon in Kennewick. Next week, the Blitz return to Bakersfield for their home opener against the Stockton Lightning on April 21st at 7:00 p.m. Season tickets are going fast, but still available by calling 377-2548.

• Discuss this story on the arenafootball2 message board...

arenafootball2 Stories from April 13, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Bakersfield Blitz Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central