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Rpators Win Rally Towel Night Game

May 7, 2006 - United Indoor Football Association (UIF)
Rock River Raptors News Release


The Rock River Raptors indoor football team became 4-3 on the season and 3-0 in the UIF's Central Division after a 53-45 win over the Bloomington Extreme in front of over 35-hundred fans at the "Rock Pile" on Saturday night.

Rock River held their first-ever "Rally Towel Night" as the first 3,000 fans received rally towels courtsey of Mountain Dew and Fox-39 TV.

The win was the second of the season against the Extreme and the two teams will play again at the "Rock Pile" on June 24th.

Rock River jumped out to a 14-13 first quarter lead thanks to the throwing arm of quarterback Ben Sankey. Scoring passes to Ade Adeyemo and to Jeremiah Thompson from 8 and 5 yards helped the Raptors to the lead.

A 15-yard touchdown pass from Dusty Burke to Dwayne Smith and two field goals from former University of Illinois kicker Peter Christofilakos put the Extreme on the board.

The Raptors would go on to out-score the Extreme 16-14 in the second quarter to take a 30-27 lead into the locker room. Randy Bell would get it started with the one-yard touchdown run but then Bloomington would make things interesting on the next series as back-up quarterback Tom Kudyba would enter the game and fling a 28-yard scoring strike to Sam D'Alie to tie the game at 20-all

Raptors kicker Dillon Pieffer connected from long range as he would hit a 47-yard field goal to to make the score 23-20.

The lead would be short-lived because Dion Brown would take the ensuing kick-off to the house and give the Extreme a 27-23 lead.

Not to be out-done, Rock River would find the endzone one more time as Sankey hit Thompson from one yard out to give the Raptors the lead.

In the third quarter, a spectacular dive over the defense by Sankey on a six-yard touchdown run gave the Raptors a 10-point lead at 37-27.

However, the move cut Sankey's night short as he would sustained an injury and was replaced by Ryan Aulenbacher.

The Rock River defense tightened in the third quarter as they allowed just a 29-yard field goal as took a 37-30 lead into the final stanza. It was there like so many UIF games, the flood gated would burst open as the teams combined for 31 poits.

Raptors running back Randy Bell would have a hand in both Rock River scores as he caught a 4 yard pass from Aulenbacher and ran another one in from 1 yard out. Pieffer added a 22 yard field goal.

Smith hooked up with Kudyba for two scoring passes and Christofilakos added a 38 yard field goal.

Before being injured, Sankey complete 16 of 24 passes for 89 yards while Aulenbacher was 8-of-12 for 55 yards Sankey also rushed for 41 yards on five carries.

Rock River also got great efforts in the receiving corp. Adeyemo had nine catches for 62 yards and Tyrece Butler added four catches for 40 yards. Thompson had five catches for 19 yards.

RAPTOR NOTES

- Rock River returns to the road for the first time in three weeks as they will board the bus for their only Friday game of the season in Fort Wayne against the Freedom. Kick-off will be at 6:30 p.m, and you will be able to hear all of the action starting with the Pre-game on the Raptors Radio Network with Andy Gannon at 6:05 p.m. on ESPN 1380-AM and "The Big Easy" 93.7FM

As always, the game will be available on the internet, just log on to www.espn1380.com, www.wekz.com and on www.raptorsuif.com.

- ESPN-1380 "The Jock" is your home for the Raptors Coaches' Show. Listen to "Rappin' with Coach Richards" live from RBI's Restaurant located at 3870 North Perryville Road in Rockford form 5 p.m. until 6 p.m. on Monday. Raptors fans are invited out for the coaches show and then stay at RBI's at 6 p.m. to have dinner with the team. Raptors players and coaches will be on hand to talk football and sign autographs.

- The Raptors return home on Saturday night, May 20th against the Lexington Horsemen. Kick-Off is set for 7:30 p.m.

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United Indoor Football Association Stories from May 7, 2006


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