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Lightning lose 57-44

May 5, 2007 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Stockton Lightning News Release


KENNEWICK, Wash. - The Tri-Cities Fever scored 20 first-quarter points off three Stockton Lightning turnovers, as the Fever led wire-to-wire to send the Lightning to a 57-44 loss in week 6 action of arenafootball2 play, before 4,122 at Toyota Center on Saturday.

Lightning rookie quarterback Evan Gray threw for five touchdown passes in his first af2 start, completing 25-of-50 tosses for 222 passing yards and now has 12 passing scores in his last two games. J.R. Thomas led Tri-Cities' offense with 10 catches for 148 yards and two touchdown receptions, garnering Schutt Offensive Player of the Game honors. The Lightning are now 0-3 all-time against Head Coach Tony Wells.

Tri-Cities capitalized on a deflected pass by Gray on the first play of the game for a Mike Hodges interception, which was followed by a two-yard touchdown run by FB Lamar Johnson and J.R. Thomas' nine-yard reception for a 13-0 Fever lead. Gray followed with his first touchdown toss of the game, a 38-yard bomb to WR Sale' Key with 7:05 left to cut the Tri-Cities cushion to 13-7.

QB Brian Baker, leading the af2 in passing yard average heading into the game, uncharacteristically capitalized with the ground game on a one-yard keeper off the right tackle with 2:05 left in the first to push Tri-Cities' lead to 20-7, his first of two touchdown rushes for the game and season.

Fever kicker Wes Virgilio followed with a 33-yard field goal early in the second quarter to give the Fever their biggest lead at 16 points. Virgilio's field goal was a season-long and capped a night where he went 6-of-8 in point-after attmepts after going 11-of-20 on PAT's heading into the contest.

The Lightning swung back to cut the deficit to 30-23 at halftime, highlighted by a 13-0 run on Kenyatte Morgan's 27-yard touchdown reception from Gray on a fourth-down conversion and a nifty nine-yard receiving score by B'Jay Jones, beating a defender to the shallow left corner of the end-zone.

Both teams traded scores for the remainder of the game, as Key and Jones added their second touchdown reception each for the Lightning offense, while Tri-Cities countered with Robert Garth's spinning 12-yard touchdown reception at the 3:40 mark of the third quarter, Baker's second touchdown run on a bootleg in the fourth quarter, and Emery Beckles' six-yard touchdown reception with 2:20 left in the game.

Key led all Lightning receivers with 13 catches and 118 yards along with his two touchdown receptions. Morgan, the af2's all-time leader in return yards heading into the week, suffered his first game shy of the 100-yard return yards mark this season as he was allowed just one return on 12 yards.



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