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Fire Defeats Quad City

June 6, 2004 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Louisville Fire News Release


In what Fire Head Coach Tommy Johnson dub as "an important game" the Louisville Fire (7-2) defeated the Quad City Steamwheelers (6-3) 62-61 in Freedom Hall. The game lived up to its billing as a battle between two of the arenafootball2 league's top scoring offenses.

Quad City got the scoring started early with Ronnie Gordon hitting Tim Dodge for a 21-yard touchdown reception to give the ‘Wheeler's a 7-0 led. The Fire would respond with 6:01 to go in the first with Demetrius Forney finding the end zone on a one-yard touchdown run. Quad City would score again with 4:19 to go on a Ronnie Gordon one-yard run to make it 14-7 Quad City.

With 11:55 to go in the second Fire WR/DB Tony Stallings would score the Fire's second rushing touchdown to tie it up 14-14. After Ronnie Gordon found Carmelo Ocasio for a 40-yard touchdown strike the Fire would find the end zone through the air for the first time as Matt Sauk hit Takuya Furutani to make it Fire 21-20. Demont Smith would recover a Quad City fumble a few minutes later as Sauk again would hook up with Furutani for a 45-yard touchdown the give the Fire a 28-20 led.

The second-half started with more offensive fireworks as Matt Sauk threw his third touchdown pass of the game to Anthony Payton to keep the Fire ahead 34-27. The teams would trade scores with Ocasio and Payton both scoring twice more in the third quarter. The quarter would end with the Fire in the lead 48-41.

It took a while to get the scoring going again in the fourth but Ronnie Gordon finally threw a touchdown pass to Jeff Hewitt with 7:40 to go. Furutani would once again score a 45-yard touchdown with 6:13 left on the clock to make it Fire 55, Quad City 48. Quad City would tie the score at 55 when Charles Sheffield crossed the goal line with 5:12 to go in the fourth. Things would get interesting from there. Fire WR/LB Anthony Payton caught his fourth touchdown pass of the game with just 52 seconds on the clock to put the Fire up 62-55. Quad City answered right back as Ronnie Gordon and Jeff Hewitt connected on a 19 yard touchdown pass with just 34 seconds left. Quad City attempted and onside kick and was called for illegal touching. The Fire had the ball with less than 30 seconds but failed to find the end zone and kicker Marc Samuel would missed as 24-yard field goal with 12 seconds left. Quad City had one last chance with just one second on the clock and kicker Ryan Geisler missed his second field goal of the night, a 51-yard attempt that fell short to give the Fire a 62-61 victory.

Back drafts: Fire OS Takuya Furutani was named Baby Ruth Real Deal Offensive Player of the Game with 10 receptions for 198 yards and three touchdowns... Fire WR/LB Anthony Payton was named US Army Ironman of the Game after catching nine passes for 153 yards and four touchdowns and recorded one and half tackles and half of a sack... Fire WR/DB Tony Stallings made his return to the Fire after appearing on the Animal Planet reality show King of the Jungle 2, Stallings scored one rushing touchdown and recorded five tackles... The Fire broke a team record for the second straight week with 369 total yards... Next week the Fire will travel to Peoria for the first of back-to-back games against the Pirates.



arenafootball2 Stories from June 6, 2004


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