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Fort Wayne Freedom game notes

June 2, 2005 - United Indoor Football Association (UIF)
Fort Wayne Freedom News Release


Radio: WGL 1250 AM, Pre-game at 3:45pm, with Dean Jackson and John Dutton

Webcast: InDigital Telecom

Series: First meeting ever

Overview – The Omaha Beef have been the poster child for inconsistency this season. Beating Sioux City, and then one week later falls to Black Hills.

Last Week: The Freedom hold serve blasting Tupelo last time out 45-20, Bryan White completed 15-of-23 passes for 161 yards and four touchdowns. Each Freedom receiver grabbed a pass, including Rocky Harvey who also scored two rushing touchdowns. He finished with 16 carries for 70 yards.

Omaha's Ted Retzlaff nailed a 33-yard field goal in overtime to pace the Beef past the Lexington Horsemen, 58-55, Saturday in Rupp Arena to snap a two-game Lexington win streak. The Horsemen (6-4) led 55-48 with 2:34 remaining in the game when Omaha's (5-4) Steve Lovell caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from quarterback John McMenamin to knot the score at 55 and set up Retzalaff's late-game heroics. McMenamin completed 13-of-25 passes for 114 yards and was picked off twice in the game. He also rushed for 40 yards on five attempts as part of a balanced Beef scoring attack.

Division Champs - If the Freedom win and Ohio Valley loses to Peoria, the Freedom capture the Midwest Division title. The magic number is now at two games, any combination of Freedom wins and Greyhound losses equaling two gives the title to the Freedom.

Deja' vu – The Freedom and Beef will meet up again Saturday night in Omaha. It's the third time the Freedom has played the same team back to back weeks this year. The Freedom opened the year with a home-and-home series with Ohio Valley in Wheeling, West Virginia. In Games 8 and 9, the Freedom faced Peoria, and the Freedom will end the season with Ohio Valley in back games.

CAN I GET SOME PROTECTION?

Freedom has recorded 34 sacks in 9 games....an average of a more than 3 game – The team record is nine, coming in the win April 23 at Tupelo. Rachman Crable leads the team and the league with 14.5 sacks.

HOME SWEET HOME

The Freedom are nearly unstoppable at home. They are 17-2 over their first three seasons in existence (NIFL & UIF). Incidentally, the only teams to win in Fort Wayne have gone on to win a league title.

(Ohio Valley 2003, Lexington 2005)

THE FREEDOM THIS SEASON ARE:

5-0 at home

4-0 on the road

3-0vs. North Division

3-0vs. Midwest Division

2-0 vs. South Division

1-0 on Fridays

6-0 on Saturdays

2-0 on Sundays

1-0 in March

4-0 in April

4-0 in May

Players to watch

Fort Wayne (9-0, 1st Place Midwest Division)

Rocky Harvey RB, #22 – The leagues 2nd leading scorer with 21 touchdowns. 18 on the run and three passes receptions for touchdowns. He's also 2nd in rushing with 146 carries for 631 yards. He averages 70.1 yards per game

Jeremy Dutcher WR, #5 - He's the first choice in a receiving arsenal, that could be the best in the league in efficiency; He's 4th in the league, with 17 touchdown receptions. He's second in the league with 620 yards on 43 receptions. He's averaging 69 yards a game with just over four catches a game. He leads the league with more than 14 yards per catch.

Bryan White QB, #13 – Northern Michigan graduate has completed 118-of-191 passes for 1300 yards, while throwing 29 touchdown passes. He's also averaging more than 162 yards per game passing.

Luther Stroder RB, #26 – Coming on stronger each game, perhaps, the X-factor for the offense.

Lewis Carter LB #9 – Registered a time high 56 tackles with 2 interceptions on the season. He's also sacked opponents 6 times.

Rachman Crable DE, #52 - His 14 sacks lead the league.

Adrian Reese WR#20 -35 catches for 285 yards with 5 tds.

Alan Ganaway #3 CB, Carlos Smith SS #7, Andrae Brooks

#24 FS & Scott Heighland #23 CB –

Arguably the best secondary in the UIF - Heighland and Brooks have 5 interceptions, good for top 5 five in the league... Heighland has tallied 53 totally tackles. Smith 51-3 INT, Brooks 44.0,Ganaway 32.5, 2 INTs - There is no better defense in the league, statistically speaking against the pass.

Omaha (5-4, 3rd , North Division)

RB-James Johnson, RB, #21 is the teams leading rusher, averaging more than 50 yards per game. He's scored 9 touchdowns for the Beef

John McMenamin, QB #3 has completed 102-of-213 passes for 1053 yards and 21 touchdowns while tossing 12 interceptions. He averages 117 yards per game. He played for back-to-back NCAA Division II championship teams at Northwest Missouri.

Mike Nizzi, WR, #81 is McMenamin's target of choice. Nizzi has grabbed 9 touchdowns... he's also catch 31 passes for 441 yards. Four of those TD grabs came in the opening game rout of Omaha.

Steve Lovell, WR/KR #44 is Omaha's Mr. Versatility. He catches passes, returns kicks and field goals and he's averaging more than 100 yards per game.

Travis Kopf, DB, #5 leads the Beef on defense with 55 tackles and 5 passes broken up.

Mike Sheppard, DB, #8 has made 48.5 tackles including 1 interception and five passes broken up.

Donovan LaViness, LB, #48 and Leif Murphy, DE, #17 are solid on the DL. LaViness has 33 tackles while Murphy has 6 ½ sacks and 30 1/ 2 tackles.

Henry Whitehead, DB, #4 has intercepted 1 pass, and made 22 ½ spots.

Dontae Allen, DB #25 has grabbed 1 interception and 21 ½ tackles... and

BY THE NUMBERS

Omaha Opponent Fort Wayne Opponent

Scoring 372 376 399 240

Per game 41.3 41.8 44.3 26.7

Rushing 220-747 208-724 202-833 177-685

Per game 75.1 69.7 92.7 72.0

Per rush 3.1 3.0 4.1 3.7

Touchdowns-Rush 22 19 19 14

Passing 103-219-(12)-1047 121-211-(8)-1293 127-210 (10)-1325 123-230-(17) 906

Per Game 116.3 143.7 147.2 100.7

Touchdowns-Pass 22 27 32 14

Total Offense 443-1723 430-1920 426-2158 441-1554

Per play 3.9 4.5 5.1 3.5

Per game 191.4 213.3 239.8 172.7

Penalty 65-503 73-511 69-600 67-514

Per game 55.9 56.8 66.7 57.1

Possession 30:49 28:17 30:19 29:29

Third-Down Conv 35/92 (38) 29/84 (35) 36/82 (44) 26/89(29)

Fourth-Down 12/23 (52) 12/23 6/10 (60) 9/27 (33)

Sacks by –yards 11/62 4/28 34-176 14-42

THE COACHES:

FORT WAYNE FREEDOM -

MATT LAND (9-0, 1ST Season) -is a high school physical education teacher at South Side High School in Fort Wayne, where he also serves as head football coach. This marks his third season with the Freedom; he had been offensive coordinator for the past two seasons. He was also an assistant at Northrop High School in Fort Wayne for six years. He is a graduate of Ball State University and Northrop High School where he also played quarterback. He's married to Julie and the proud father of Jake and Emily.

OMAHA BEEF -

ROBERT FULLER (16-7, 2nd Season) returns to the Omaha Beef after a very successful first season as a Head Coach with the Tri City Diesel. The Diesel won the Pacific South Division. Fuller was chosen as the Pacific South Division Coach of the Year. Fuller's coaching career started in North Pole, AK, then later with University of Mary (NAIA) Bismarck Rough Riders (NIFL) in Bismarck, ND. Was an assistant for the Beef in 2003?

2005 FRICKER'S SPORTS BAR AND RESTAURANT

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Wk Offensive Defensive Special Teams

1. Jeremy Dutcher Rachman Crable Adrian Reese

2. Bryan White Scott Heighland Glenn Johnson

3. Bryan White Lewis Carter Billy Bennett

4. Rocky Harvey Carlos Smith Andrae Brooks

5. Rocky Harvey Scott Heighland Billy Bennett

6. Jeremy Dutcher Carlos Smith Billy Bennett

7. Jeremy Dutcher Carlos Smith Josh Telenko

8. Luther Stroder Rachman Crable ----

9. Bryan White Lewis Carter Scott Russell

2005 UIF PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Wk Offensive Defensive Special Teams

1. Dale Jennings, EVA Michael Gholar, TUP Prince Morgan, BHR

2. Greg Muckerson, OVG Marcus Jones, PEO James Jones, SFS

3. Sean Bennett, EVA Eddie Bynes, OVG Fred Jackson, SCB

4. Terrance Bryant, SFS Scott Heighland, FWF Matt Russell, PEO

5. Bryan White, FWF Fernandez Shaw, TVR Billy Bennett, FWF

6. Otis Shannon, EVA Shannon Poppinga, SFS Ton Ton Luzayadio, BHR

7. Fred Jackson, SCB Mark Blackburn, SFS William Mulder, LEX

8. Jeremy Dutcher, FWF Shawn Hackett, OVG Billy Bennett, FWF

9. Omaha O-Line Champ Kelly, LEX Erik Rockhold, EVB

10. Frank Borba, BHB Rachman Crable, FWF James Jones, SFS

11. Ramon Robinson, EVB Jesse Wavrunek, DL, SCB John Michael Marlin, K, TU



United Indoor Football Association Stories from June 2, 2005


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