Crush Turns Back Kats
March 13, 2005 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Colorado Crush News Release
Rich Young's 8 yard touchdown reception with 56 seconds remaining gave the Colorado Crush what turned out to be the game-clinching points as they snagged a 42-35 win over the Nashville Kats at the Gaylord Entertainment Center on Saturday evening.
The touchdown proved to be the difference in a game that saw the Crush struggle at points against the Kats, actually trailing the reborn expansion team at halftime by a 21-20 score before rallying after intermission.
"It was an ugly game, we didn't play our best game," wide receiver/defensive back Ahmad Hawkins told KHOW AM 630. "We came out flat, and (Head) Coach (Mike Dailey) had to get on us."
Hawkins had perhaps the best two-way performance of any Crush player so far this season, intercepting a Tony Zimmerman pass in the second half and grabbing a touchdown pass. Hawkins was both the Ironman of the Game and the Defensive Player of the Game for his efforts.
But Hawkins was unsatisfied.
"We came out of the bye week too sluggish and that's not professional," Hawkins said. "It shouldn't take him getting on us to pick it up; we should just do it ourselves."
The Crush played turnover-free football as John Dutton completed 23 of 34 passes for 232 yards, flinging six touchdown passess against no interceptions.
Colorado extended its winning streak to three games with the triumph, which pushed its record to 4-2. The Kats -- playing in their first season back in the AFL after three dormant seasons -- dropped to 1-6.
NOTES:
... Young's last-minute scoring reception was the first of his AFL career. Heading into Saturday's game he had 18 career AFL touchdowns, all on runs ...
... Saul Patu blocked a Gary Kral field-goal attempt in the first quarter. It was the first blocked field goal in franchise history ...
... Two-way player Willis Marshall returned from a short stint on injured reserve to catch four passes for 54 yards and a score ...
... Offensive specialist Damian Harrell kept his streak of consecutive games with a touchdown alive by scoring twice; he has at least one touchdown in every game he's played for the Crush ...
... The Crush had three points taken off the board at the end of the first half when a holding penalty nullified Clay Rush's successful 41-yard field-goal attempt ...
... Colorado was forced to use all three of its first-half timeouts on its first possession ...
... Long, drawn-out drives helped keep the contest low-scoring by AFL standards. Two last-minute touchdowns -- one for each team -- pushed the game's point total to 77 points, allowing the contest to avert being the lowest-scoring in Crush history. But it was the fifth-lowest-scoring contest in team history, just five points shy of the record low of 72 points by the Crush and Austin Wranglers on Feb. 27, 2004.
Colorado is 4-1 in its five lowest- scoring games. The only loss among those was in the season opener at Orlando when the Crush fell 39-36 (75 total points).
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Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from March 13, 2005
- Storm nip Rattlers, 59-56 - Arizona Rattlers
- Despite strong defensive effort, Wranglers fall to Desperados, 52-28 - Austin Wranglers
- Desperados Corral Wranglers, 52-28 - Dallas Desperados
- Predators beat VooDoo, 63-52 - New Orleans VooDoo
- Rampage lose squeaker, 48-45 - Grand Rapids Rampage
- Rush comes back, holds on against Rampage, 48-45 - Chicago Rush
- Dragons win battle of top teams - OSC Original by David Holusha
- Storm Improve to 4-0 at Home - Tampa Bay Storm
- Bironas wins it! - New York Dragons
- Force fall to Dragons in New York, 53-51 - Georgia Force
- Gladiators roll in Columbus, 63-34 - Las Vegas Gladiators
- Crush Turns Back Kats - Colorado Crush
- Colorado beats Nashville - Nashville Kats
- Las Vegas upends Columbus, 63-34 at Nationwide Arena - Columbus Destroyers
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