Carolina Rhinos Lose 41-38 At Home To Cape Fear
June 15, 2002 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Carolina Rhinos News Release
GREENVILLE, SC â The arenafootball2's Carolina Rhinos lost 41-38 at home to the first-year Cape Fear Wildcats Saturday. The loss was the fifth in a row for the Rhinos whose record dropped to 2-8. It was the sixth straight victory for Cape Fear. The Wildcats upped their record to 8-2 and moved into a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division with the Richmond Speed with the win. Cape Fear rallied from a 17-0 first-quarter deficit and scored 21 of the game's final 28 points.
Quarterback Mike Gluski led the Wildcats completing 14 passes for game-highs of 229 yards and four touchdowns. Seth Gutz caught five passes for a game-high 96 yards and two touchdowns while Troy Esprit and former Rhino Rico Cannon hauled in one scoring strike apiece for Cape Fear. Cannon's catch turned out to be the game-winning score with 9:55 left in the third quarter. Wilmont Perry and Mitch Galloway also rushed for Wildcat touchdowns.
Caleb Slover returned to the Rhinos' lineup and completed 13 passes for 173 yards and four touchdowns three of which were caught by Xamon Glasper who had four total catches for a team-leading 64 yards.
The Rhinos took a 17-0 first-quarter lead on touchdown catches by Glasper and Robert Garth, as well as a Donnie Pennington field goal, but Cape Fear rattled off 20 straight points on two Gutz scoring catches sandwiched around Perry's touchdown run to grab its first advantage with 2:42 left in the first half.
The Rhinos regained the lead at 31-20 on a 23-yard touchdown run by Slover and Glasper's second scoring catch, but the Wildcats pulled to within 31-27 with :01 left in the half on a pass to Esprit. Cape Fear took the lead for good on Galloway's run and Cannon's catch within the first 5:05 of the third quarter. Glasper caught his third touchdown with :40 left in the period to pull the Rhinos to within 41-38.
The Rhinos had two chances to take the lead late in the game but missed a field goal attempt with 9:18 left to play and then literally fumbled away the go-ahead score inside the game's final minute. Slover completed a pass to Rashaan Kearny who was all alone on the two yard line but fumbled the ball which crossed the goal line and went out of bounds for a touchback with :44 remaining. The Wildcats then took over and ran out the clock. Gluski was named the game's most valuable player, Gutz took Ironman honors while Jami Oats of the Rhinos was named the ADT Defensive player of the game.
The Rhinos will visit the Roanoke Steam next Saturday June 22nd at 7:30 p.m. and the Columbus Wardogs Saturday June 29th at 7 p.m. Rhinos' road games are broadcast live on 1070 "The Sportszone" WCSZ-AM and at rhinosfootball.com beginning 15 minutes prior to kickoff. 1070 "The Sportszone" also broadcasts "Rhino Talk" featuring head coach Rod Miller and special player guests Mondays from 6 p.m. until 7 p.m. live from Wild Wing Café on West Washington Street in downtown Greenville.
The Rhinos will return home to host Columbus Saturday July 6th at 7:30 p.m. They will visit Cape Fear at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Saturday July 13th.
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