Rage Head to Bloomington for Conference Title Game
June 26, 2008 - United Indoor Football Association (UIF)
RiverCity Rage News Release
St. Charles, MO - The RiverCity Rage will head to Bloomington, IL to battle the Extreme for the UIF Eastern Conference championship on Monday, June 30th. Bloomington had a first round bye in the playoffs last week while the Rage defeated the Sioux City Bandits, 37-33, at the Family Arena on Saturday night.
This will mark the fourth meeting this season for these two teams. Bloomington holds a 2-1 advantage as they defeated the Rage 41-38 on April 12th in St. Charles and 51-42 in Bloomington on May 3rd while RiverCity got the best of the Extreme, 32-29, in overtime, back in St. Charles on May 31st. Rage head coach, Ken Stills, feels that his team has a good idea on what the Extreme bring to the table and how they can slow down the league's third ranked offense.
"We have been looking at the films from those three games all week," said Stills. "They have been giving us a short field because they refuse to kick the ball deep to [Hurtis] Chinn. If we get the ball on the 20 every time we need to get points on every drive. We have been hammering that home to our offense all week. We need to move the ball on first down and move the chains. We need to come away from every drive with points. Our defense is great. However, Bloomington is putting up over 44 points a game. We can't afford to have empty trips and expect to stay with them."
The Extreme brings the league's second ranked passing and third ranked scoring offense. Quarterback, Dusty Burk sits second with 199 passing yards per game and has thrown 45 touchdowns. His favorite target is receiver James Walton. The two-time UIF All-Star is first in the league with 26 touchdowns and 75.9 receiving yards per game. He is also second in the league in catches with 78.
"I know that Chris Dixon won the MVP," added Stills. "But I still think that Burk is the top pure passer in the league. He is the key to everything that Bloomington does. We cannot allow him to just sit back and throw the ball around. Our defense needs to attack him all game to try to disrupt his timing with the receivers. It's going to come down to slowing down their offense and executing when we have the ball. Whatever happens, it will be an entertaining, hard fought game to the end."
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