Sharks Fall Shy in Crown Bid
Published on July 31, 2004 under Independent Women's Football League (IWFL)
New York Sharks News Release
It was a year ago that the Sacramento Sirens and the New York Sharks last met in the IWFL Championship Game. On that evening in New York City, the Sirens came away as the IWFL champions. This year the re-match was in Sacramento and the Sharks wanted to write a different ending.
It was hot at kick-off time with temperatures in the low 90's but the humidity was low and there was a slight breeze. The Sharks were considered the visitors and captain Val Halesworth called heads. New York won the coin toss and elected to receive.
The game began like two heavyweight boxers jabbing about as they tried to get a feel for their oppponent. Each team was able to move the ball a little bit but were then forced to punt.
The Sharks got on the board first in the first quarter with a little help from their defense. Sacramento started their series at their own 30 yard line, but the Sharks' defense pushed the Sirens back to their own 17-yard line. After forcing Sacramento to punt, the Sharks started their series on the Sacramento 44-yard line. Starting in decent field position, it took New York 6 plays to draw first blood. Mixing up running and short passing plays, the visitors scored when Halesworth found Jen Blum in the endzone with an 8-yard pass to put the Sharks ahead 6-0 with 2:46 left in the first quarter. The Sharks then went for the 2-point conversion using their swinging gate formation. Halesworth took the snap, tossed a lateral to Missy Marmorale who then tossed the ball to Lynn Lewis. It was a razzle dazzle play, but it was called back for an illegal shift penalty. New York then went for the conventional extra point, but Nikki Gwinnett's kick was blocked. The first quarter ended with the Sharks leading the Sirens 6-0.
Sacramento got the touchdown back after they started their next drive in good field position. The Sharks had argued the illegal shift penalty and were hit with another penalty which forced them to kick-off from their own 30-yard line. The Sirens were able to return the ball to the New York 40-yard line. Mixing runs by Leilani Limary, Julie Wicher, and Lisa Giblin the Sirens were able to tie the score in 8 plays. Kicker Janelle Okamoto missed the extra point so the score remained tied with 13:10 left in the first half.
After the kick-off, the Sirens defense forced the Sharks to punt. Sacramento started off on their own 29-yard line, but it only took one play for them to take their first lead in the game. With a little sleight of hand, Limary handed the ball off to Wicher and in the blink of an eye she was gone. She ran 71 yards to make the score 12-6, Sacramento. Okamoto, again missed the extra point, but the Sirens had a 12-6 lead with 11:37 left in the second quarter.
New York tried to even up the score on their next possession. Again mixing up running plays with Monica Marsh and short passing plays to Kathy Holloman and Karen Mulligan, the Sharks were able to move the ball all the way down to the Siren's 10-yard line. But on the 15th play of the drive, Halesworth was tackled just as she pitched out to running back Marmorale. The ball went flying past Marmorale and the Sirens recovered the ball on their own 4-yard line.
Sacramento had dodged a bullet but it didn't last long. The Sirens were only able to move the ball to their own 26-yard line before they were forced to punt. The long snap bounced to punter and this gave Darleen "Blue" Hall enough time to block the punt. The Sharks recovered the ball on the 15-yard line. After getting hit with a motion penalty, Halesworth threw a short pass on the right side to Holloman who was able then able to drag her tacklers into the endzone for the tying score. Gwinnett came in to kick the extra point, and with 1:33 left in the first half, the Sharks had regained the lead, 13-12.
In last year's championship game, the Sharks went into the locker room at halftime with a one-point lead and it was deja vue all over again. Hopefully things would turn out differently this time. But despite the lead, not everything was going well for the Sharks. Near the end of the first quarter, Halesworth had broken injured the thumb on her throwing hand. She was able to play through the pain by dunking her hand into a bucket of ice between possessions. Sometimes her hand would be in there too long and the hand would go numb. At that point she would bite her hand to get the feeling back.
Despite the injury, Halesworth continued to play on and it didn't appear to affect her play in the third quarter. The second half started with Sacramento receiving the kick-off. After a quick first down by running back Lauren Sherburne, linebacker Chrissy Hilla picked off a Limary pass and returned it to the New York 35-yard line. The Sharks marched down the field to the Sirens' 29-yard line when Sacramento was able to stop a Halesworth scramble for a 1-yard loss. But a shove by the Sacramento defender as Halesworth tried to get up, got the Sirens hit with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty. With New York now in the redzone, they gave the ball Marsh who powered her way in on the second try to increase the Sharks' lead. Gwinnett's extra point attempt was low, but New York now led 19-12 with 11:28 left in the third quarter.
The Sirens' game plan during the year was to stick with the running attack, but in this game they were opening it up a little bit more. It started to look like the Sharks were up to the task as Sacramento threw two times in a row and was stopped on a running play for no gain. The Sirens had the ball on New York's 31-yard line and a fourth down. The Sirens' went for the first down and Limary was able to find an open receiver for a 28 yard gain to put the ball all the way down to the Sharks' 3-yard line. Sacramento was pounding on the door to try and tie up the game, but the Sharks defense came up big. Twice they tackled the Sirens runner behind the line of scrimmage and the other time the pass dropped harmlessly to the ground. Instead of going for a touchdown from the 11-yard line, Sacramento decided to go for the field goal. Okamoto had twice missed the extra point, but she came through in the clutch with a 27-yard field goal attempt. That kick cut the Sharks lead to 19-15 with 7:13 remaining in the third quater.
After the kick-off, New York could do nothing with the ball and were quickly forced to punt. With a delay of game penalty thrown in, the Sharks were punting from their own 30-yard line. It looked like Sacramento would get very good field position, but Gwinnett punted away from the return man and as the ball bounced around it hit a Sirens' player. The Sharks pounced on the ball and recovered the gift turnover on the Sacramento 45-yard line. Using the same formula as their last touchdown, the Sharks scored again as Marsh pounded her way for positive yards until she reached the endzone. New York went for the two-point conversion and Halesworth found Mulligan in the endzone to give the Sharks 27-15 lead with only 1:54 remaining in the third quarter.
Down by 12 points with one quarter left was a tall task, but Sacramento's offense is a team that can step up to the task. After the kick-off, the Sirens' went back to their running attack and gave the ball to Wicher and Kahler. The duo was able to move the Sirens down the field in 11 plays to score a touchdown. Okamoto who seemed to find her range, kicked the extra point to cut the margin to 5 points, with the score 27-22 with 13:38 left in the game.
Sacramento was able to stop the Sharks on their next possession and got the ball back on their own 35-yard line. Then the Sirens got a big break which didn't seem so good a the time. Throwing the bomb, Limary's pass was tipped twice and then intercepted by Lori DeVivio. This gave the ball back to New York, but on their own 33-yard line. After a chop block penalty was accessed on New York, the ball was now back to the Sharks' 19-yard line. Deep in their own territory and far away from a first down, the Sharks went to the pass and on the second pass attempt, the ball came out of Halesworth hand like a dying quail. Sacramento was able to pick off the pass and they now had the ball on the Sharks' 25-yard line. Kahler made quick work of it by scoring on a 25-yard running play to put the Sirens' back in front. And with Okamoto's extra point, the score was now 29-27 with only 9:20 left in the season.
Both defenses played tough and did not allow any more scoring when the Sharks made one last attempt to win the game. After a Limary fumble with less than 2 minutes left in the game, New York had the ball on their own 30-yard line. The Sharks would need a miracle to move the ball 70-yards to win the game, but unfortunately it did not happen. The game ended in a bizarre flurry of flags as the Sharks were hit with a penalty on three plays in a row. With the ball moving backwards, any hope of a comeback was squashed.
Despite the Sharks' loss, the game had matched the hype. Two championship quality teams slugged it out. Afterwards, medals were given out to both teams, gold for the Sirens and silver for the Sharks. The league also gave out bonuses to players who led the league in certain categories. $1,000 was given to Sirens' kicker Okamoto for her kicking accuracy, $500 was given to the Sharks' Marmorale for leading the league in tackles, and $500 was also given out to Sharks' Veronica "Vicious" Simmons for leading the league in quarterback sacks.
It was definitely a bittersweet moment for the Sharks. They had fought hard all year and had their third straight time of going undefeated in the regular season and making it to the championship game. But it just wasn't enough to bring the title back to New York. A lot of what if's crossed everyone's mind as Halesworth left the field with her arm in a sling, but the Sirens are one again sitting a top of the IWFL.
Independent Women's Football League Stories from July 31, 2004
- Sharks Fall Shy in Crown Bid - New York Sharks
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