Rush moves to 3-1 with 70-35 win
March 22, 2008 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Chicago Rush News Release
Chicago Rush wide receiver Damian Harrell had a record-setting performance, and his teammates gave him plenty of reason to celebrate, as the Rush (3-1) dominated the Colorado Crush, 70-35, in front of 16,036 excited fans at a sold out Allstate Arena Saturday night.
The fans were rewarded by Harrell in the first half when he caught two touchdown passes from QB Sherdrick Bonner to become the AFL's all-time leader in career touchdown receptions with 304. He tied and later eclipsed the record held by former Albany/Indiana Firebird star "Touchdown" Eddie Brown.
But Harrell wasn't the only story Saturday night as Bonner, who missed last week's win in Grand Rapids to witness the birth of his son, returned and completed 24 of his 29 passes for 211 yards and four touchdowns and the Rush defense forced two turnovers and blocked two field goal attempts before shutting out Colorado for the game's final 27 minutes.
"The defense played great and instead of just depending on the defense to do it's job we on offense fed off them and played well," Bonner said. "We played a great team game tonight with every unit playing well and feeding off of each other. I know that I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable in the offense and that things went much better tonight than they had in my previous two games."
The Rush seized control in the second half after a very competitive effort from Colorado through the early part of the third quarter. Colorado Quarterback John Dutton completed a 24-yard TD pass to Willie Quinnie early in the period to close within five points at 40-35, but the Rush overpowered Colorado the rest of the way, scoring the final 30 points to put the game.
DeJuan Alfonzo had a rushing touchdown and backup QB Russ Michna threw TD passes to lineman Joe Peters and Alfonzo, but it was Peters' block of Colorado kicker Clay Rush's 58-yard FG attempt that sucked the life out of the visitors.
With the Rush leading 47-35 with 3:50 remaining in the third quarter, Peters threw his body in front of the kick and the ball bounded out of the endzone for a safety.
The Crush never threatened after that as the Rush used its versatile attack to slowly pull away.
The first half was well-played by both teams, with the Rush being just a tad sharper than the Crush. Bonner played his best game of the young season, looking cool and confident in the pocket and delivering the ball with his trademark accuracy.
The Rush controlled the first quarter, scoring twice while allowing only one Colorado score. Bonner opened the scoring when he hit Donovan Morgan with a 5-yard scoring pass. Colorado came back on 28-yard scoring pass from Dutton to Willie Quinnie, who found himself wide open and almost lost his footing while waiting for the high-arching pass to come down.
The Rush used a second long drive to retake the lead 13-7. Bonner directed the team downfield with his pinpoint passing and Michna came into finish off the drive with a 1-yard run.
Colorado appeared to be ready to square the game, but Jonathan Ordway made a diving breakup to keep Quinnie from catching his second TD pass of the game. On the first play of the second quarter, an alert John Moyer picked up the ball when Dutton could not control the snap. Three plays later, the Rush extend the lead to 20-7 when Michna scored his second touchdown on a 2-yard run.
Colorado closed to 20-14 on a Dutton touchdown pass to Robert Thomas, but all that did was set the stage for Harrell to become the AFL's all-time career TD leader. He caught a 23-yarder with 4:43 left in the second quarter to tie Brown's record and became the record-holder a little over three minutes later when he caught a 7-yarder.
The enormity of the achievement had no impact on Colorado as the Crush scored twice in the final minute and had a chance to add a third touchdown in the final 15 seconds until the Rush defense tightened. Colorado attempted a field goal on the final play of the half, but James Baron blocked it and propelled the ball towards the Colorado goalline. With the Rush in hot pursuit, Rush managed to track it down and fall on it without giving up any additional point points. Chicago went into the lockerroom with a 40-28 lead.
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