IFL Indoor Football League

Indoor Football League for Monday June 7, 2010

Published on June 7, 2010 under Indoor Football League (IFL) News Release


Playoff dreams turned into reality for several teams during Week Fifteen of the IFL. The fight for the honor to compete in the IFL post season waged on as several moments from the week's action will go down in the annals of indoor football history. One of these anticipated events was the first time ever that indoor football would be played at an outdoor site as the Rochester Raiders and Chicago Slaughter gave New Yorkers another great sports moment.

At 1-5 to start the season, the playoffs seemed more fantasy than reality for the Tri-Cities Fever. However, the Fever (6-6) turned their season around finding themselves looking to clinch a post season spot against their Pacific North rivals, the Kent Predators (5-8). The odds were not favorable towards the Fever, who have not won a road game in two years.

Despite all of these compounding road blocks, the Fever pulled off a 57-50 victory to ensure that they will be playing in the post season.

Prior to the game, Tri-Cities had only beaten Kent once this season, and that was with Predators QB Charles McCullum too banged up to play. Fever QB Houston Lillard was more then capable of out dueling his Kent counterpart. Lillard completed 14 of his 18 attempts on the day for five touchdowns and 183 yards. Tri-Cities will return home in Week Sixteen to meet the Alaska Wild. Kent also continues Pacific North action when they travel to Fairbanks.

The last time the Amarillo Venom (10-2) played the Arkansas Diamonds (10-3), it was defensive gem. This showing however, would prove to be an offensive endeavor. Both teams combined for nearly 600 total yards on the day. The Diamonds offense would prove too much for the Venom to handle. Arkansas won by a 68-41 final. Arkansas will have a BYE week in Week Sixteen while Amarillo will return home to face Austin.

Coming into Saturday's game, the Colorado Ice had won two in a row in front of their home fans. The Sioux Falls Storm (10-2) were coming in looking to rain on the Ice's (2-10) recent streak.

Colorado would drop its home finale 73-44 to the Storm. The Ice managed to put themselves down in the game early via an onslaught of penalties and allowing Sioux Falls to score on their first three possessions.

The Ice also had three dropped passes in the first half including one in the end zone.

Colorado will now be on the road for the remainder of the season, starting with a Week Sixteen game against Omaha.

The Central North champion Storm will travel to the Pacific North champion Billings Outlaws in an anticipated meeting.

With only two games left in the regular season, both the West Michigan ThunderHawks (5-7) and Bloomington Extreme (7-5) needed victories for their potential playoff plans. For The ThunderHawks, a victory would keep them in the playoff picture. Bloomington is already a lock for the playoffs, but they could find themselves winners of the Central North crown. The Extreme came up big in the contest, winning 34-14. The Bloomington defense kept the passing game of the ThunderHawks in check by totaling 7.5 sacks and 8.5 tackles for a loss. Bloomington will travel to Maryland for Week Sixteen. West Michigan will try to bounce back next week at Green Bay.

Central North rivals Omaha Beef (7-5) and Sioux City Bandits (4-8) battled in Week Fifteen.

Bouncing back from a disappointing Week Fourteen loss, the Beef beat the Bandits by a final of 64-29. The Omaha dominating offense had over 300 yards of total offense for the game. Leading the scoring was star QB Ben Sankey. The Beef's Quarterback completed 20 of his 26 passing attempts. That air assault was good for 236 yards and four touchdowns on the day. His top targets were Mo Avery and Like McArdle. The duo was responsible for all four passing touchdowns, catching two each.

The Beef defense was also on display, sacking Bandit QBs three times during the game. With a victory over their Central North rivals complete, Omaha will return home to face the Colorado Ice. The Bandits will need a few things working in their favor to remain in playoff contention.

They will desperately need to win in Wichita in Week Sixteen.

Maryland (0-12) would try to get its first win this season against the Atlantic East champion Richmond Revolution (12-1).

While the Maniacs were looking to break their losing streak, what they received was a loss by the fourth largest margin in IFL History. The Revolution took the game by a score of 74-14. The Revolution's rookie Q B Bryan Randall threw four touchdown passes on the day. Randall now has 55 TD's on the season with only fourteen interceptions on the season. For Randall, WRs Damon Thompson and Aaron Alexander caught all four of his touchdown passes. Each receiver had two touchdown receptions. Rodney Landers also ran for two of Richmond touchdowns. The Revolution will march home next week for another round against Atlantic East rivals, the Rochester Raiders. Maryland will once again try and give their home fans their first victory as they host Bloomington.

The Fairbanks Grizzlies clinched a playoff spot with their 64-36 defeat of the La Crosse Spartans in front of their home crowd.

Fairbanks QB Justin Rummell had three touchdown passes on the day. WR Josh Crawford was on the other end of all three scores. The Fairbanks win also saw two running backs score six times, with three each as Antwan Harris and Denny Kimmel came up big. The Grizzlies also provided a rarity as far as indoor games go. With a 25-0 lead in the first quarter, they had more yards rushing than passing with 50 yards in the first quarter rushing compared to 38 yards passing. Fairbanks will continue their home-stand in Week Sixteen against Kent. La Crosse will head for a Central North showdown at Chicago.

San Angelo (8-4) snapped a two game losing skid at home in Week Fifteen against the Austin Turfcats (2-10) by a 54-36 final. Coming out of half time, the Stampede offense took a relatively close 28-17 game and blew it wide open. After a Turfcats touchdown to bring the slight lead closer at 28-24, the Stampede Express would pull full steam ahead the rest of the game by scoring 26 straight points. The win over their Lonestar East opponents gives San Angelo some much needed momentum as the season dwindles down and the Express roll into the playoffs. The Turfcats will be at Amarillo in Week Sixteen while San Angelo attempts to end Corpus Christie Hammerheads' streak of home victories.

The Wichita Wild (8-4) had two more touchdowns than the Blizzard (8-4) in their clash at Green Bay. However, it would be the Blizzard coming out on top by two points for the 40-38 victory. Wichita's main issue for the game would be converting their extra point opportunities. Twice in the first half the Wild missed kicking the extra point. Wichita would mix it up in the second half by going for two point conversions. This strategy also failed them as twice the two point conversions went incomplete.

Even total yards favored Wichita who had 262 total offensive yards compared to Green Bay's 152 yards.

The win snaps a three game losing skid for the Blizzard who will host West Michigan in Week Sixteen. Wichita will hope their luck improves next week when they return home against Sioux City.

History was made in Rochester in Week Fifteen when the Raiders (9-4) hosted the Chicago Slaughter (6-6).The IFL Game of the Week featured the first ever indoor football game played at an outdoor site. With winds blowing 20mph in front of a crowd over 6300, the Raiders rewarded their fans with a 43-36 late victory. Chicago was put in a hard position early when star running back Jarrett Payton left the game with an injured hamstring. Raiders QB Perry Patterson helped his offense out by completed 22 of his 36 attempts for 268 yards and four touchdowns. Wide Receiver Kevin Conception was another important piece to the Rochester offense. Conception put up 121 yards and two touchdowns on his seven receptions for the game.

The Raiders will not have too long to celebrate their outdoor indoor football win as they head to Richmond to take on Atlantic East rivals, the Richmond Revolution.

Chicago will get Jarrett Payton back next week when they play Central North opponents, the La Crosse Spartans.

The final Week Fifteen contest featured the Abilene Ruff Riders (2-11) visiting the Corpus Christi Hammerheads (6-6). The Hammerheads pulled off their fifth straight home victory of the season in a 49-46 outing against the Ruff Riders. The game could really be dissected by the two halves. In the first half, Corpus Christi fumbled the ball on the first play of their first two possessions.

Quickly, Corpus Christi found themselves in an early 13-0 deficit.

Corpus Christi would come back in the second half, going on a 21-7 scoring run in the third quarter. Adding to Abilene's troubles would be QB Robert Kent going 12-36 and being intercepted three times. Ruff Rider's WR Ivory McCann also dropped two passes that would have gone for scores during Hammerheads win. Corpus Christi will aim for their sixth straight home win in Week Sixteen against San Angelo. Abilene will attempt to rebound in West Texas against Lonestar West rivals, the Roughnecks.

Week Fifteen Vidswap.com IFL Players of the Week will be announced on Wednesday.

The IFL season will continue with Week Sixteen featuring twelve games on Saturday June 12th.

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Indoor Football League Stories from June 7, 2010


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