Defense Fuels Sweep of Bloomington
May 5, 2012 - Indoor Football League (IFL)
Green Bay Blizzard News Release
One week ago the Bloomington Edge (7-3) came into the Resch Center to face the Green Bay Blizzard (7-2) holding a one game lead in the teams' race for home field advantage in the IFL playoffs. After Green Bay won a 69-56 shootout last week Saturday to pull into a virtual tie, the Blizzard relied heavily on their defense to beat the Edge again 34-21 on Saturday night at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington. With the big victory Green Bay now holds a half-game advantage over Bloomington and has captured the all-important tiebreaker should the teams have matching records after the regular season.
Both offenses were held well below their season scoring averages, but the Blizzard came out on top because of their ability to create turnovers. While the Edge were able to intercept just one Donovan Porterie pass in the first quarter, the Green Bay defense wreaked havoc on the Bloomington passing game by picking off Edge quarterback Dusty Burk six times. Both B.J. Hill and James Romain tallied two interceptions, while P.J. South returned his lone pick 15 yards to the end zone for Green Bay's first points of the night. Aaron Moore snatched his third pick of the season away from a receiver in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory. The number of interceptions was impressive considering the fact that coming into play Saturday night Burk had thrown just six interceptions all season.
Bloomington scored the only points of the first quarter when Burk hit Charles Dowdell for a 14 yard touchdown on their first drive. The teams traded stops and missed field goals to close the quarter. The Blizzard had a chance to score from inside the Edge 10-yard line early in the second quarter, but Porterie was picked off in the end zone by league interception leader James Temple.
Defensive lineman P.J. South returned the favor by stepping in front of a Burk pass at the Edge 15 and taking it to the house to tie the score at 7-7. Burk responded by leading the Bloomington offense down the field and reaching over the goal line from a yard away to regain a 14-7 lead. Porterie found an open Desmond Tardy in the end zone a few minutes later from 12-yards away to pull even at 14-14. The Edge's next possession went nowhere and a missed field goal from long range by kicker Pete Christofilakos was returned by Hill for 20 yards. That return set up a 42-yard blast through the uprights by Green Bay placekicker Adrian Trevino to send the Blizzard into the half with a narrow 17-14 lead.
B.J. Hill began the second half by running the kickoff back more than 50 yards for what appeared to be his third return touchdown of the season. However, a holding penalty on the return set the Blizzard offense back to their own three. From there Porterie orchestrated an impressive 10 play, 47 yard scoring drive, capped by his own 2-yard touchdown plunge. The Blizzard defense took over at that point as Hill, the team's career interceptions leader, notched both his eighth and ninth picks of the season in the third quarter. Romain grabbed his first of the night in the quarter. The Blizzard offense never could take advantage of those turnovers and eventually Bloomington got right back in the game courtesy of a 1-yard touchdown run by halfback Andre Raymond, immediately after Porterie was stopped on a fourth and one on his own 12. In response to the Edge score, Porterie hit a diving Bryan Pray for 28 yards down to the Bloomington 2-yard line. On 3rd and goal Tardy broke open and caught his second TD of the game to put the Blizzard in front 31-21. Tardy finished with three catches for 29 yards. From that point on the Green Bay defense never budged, getting a leaping interception from Moore and a game-clinching pick from James Romain, his second of the evening. The Blizzard tacked on a late 33-yard field goal from Trevino for the final margin of 34-21.
Blizzard running back La'Ron Council was held under the century mark and out of the end zone on Saturday, but not out of the Blizzard record book. For the third week in a row Council set a new franchise record. This week he rushed for 79 yards on 22 carries to push his season total on the ground to 620 yards. That number moves him past the previous single-season record of 597 yards accomplished by Randy Bell in 2010. With five games remaining in the regular season, Council remains just one rushing touchdown short of tying the single-season record in that category as well.
Next Friday, May 11th the Blizzard will welcome the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks (4-5) to the Resch Center for their first meeting of the season. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.
Indoor Football League Stories from May 5, 2012
- Defense Fuels Sweep of Bloomington - Green Bay Blizzard
- Express Start a Steak Picking up Second Win Against the Steelhawks - Reading Express
- Wichita Smacks Omaha in Record Setting Night - Wichita Wild
- Edge Swept by Green Bay with 34-21 Loss - Bloomington Edge
- Colorado Ice Signs Offensive Standouts - Colorado Crush
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