Slaughter Finish Perfect Regular Season
Published on May 30, 2009 under Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL)
Chicago Slaughter News Release
"Perfection,even the seeking of perfection is a beautiful thing" said Chicago Slaughter head coach Steve McMichael shortly after the team beat the Wisconsin Wolfpack 49-14 in Madison.
An emotional McMichael continued:
"I have played football since I was age 11. I had a championship with the Bears. But never in all that time did I ever enjoy an undefeated season. That is something so rare in professional sports,and its something I think that all of us on this team are going to savor of many years to come. This means so much that its difficult to put the emotion into words."
The Slaughter's record for the 2009 regular season now stands at 12-0. The team has two bye weeks coming up,then will face an as yet unnamed opponent in a home game at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates on June 20.
To Defensive Lineman Chris Pisani, the win in Wisconsin was an indication of good things to come.
"It means a lot to come in here and to get it done"Pisani said. "This definitely sends a message to the other players in our league. What we said tonight was that even though we knew for several weeks that we'd be coming into the playoffs,we never let down. We didn't send out subs, we didn't let things slide even though winning no longer impacted our playoff chances. We always played hard and we always wanted to win against=2 0the best competition in this league."
Pisani anticipates rigorous practices during the weeks ahead,all a normal part of preparation for the post season.
"But really, the best competition you can find is during an actual game. So this has been a really good experience for us. We are going into the bye weeks confident. Our heads are held high and well definitely look forward to being ready for the next games coming our way."
The win tonight was a true team effort with Michna connecting to Sippio for 2 touchdowns, Jackson for 1, Gray for 2, and both Boss and Sheldon with 1 touchdown each.
"I felt we come in somewhat sloppy at the start" quarterback Russ Michna said,referring to the early Wisconsin score that brought the game to 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. "We simply can't afford to let that happen. I was glad we were able to turn things around by the second quarter,but still,there is no excuse for falling behind like that early on."
A strong defensive effort included a punt block and two interceptions and held the Wolfpack to the 14 points they had accumulated by halftime.
""Just like Russ said,we started a little too slow" said LB DeJuan Alfonzo. "But then we got things going good enough. To us,winning this game was paramount. You never want to go into a bye week,or especially into the playoffs on a sour note. You want the op portunity to look back at your last game and know that you gave your best and that you came out on top."
Reggie Gray who said going into tonight's contest that he felt "90% physically healthy" ended the game feeling strong.
"I got banged up a bit out there but no damage was done"Gray said. "I was pretty much able to do what I wanted to do out there in terms of feeling comfortable. I got into the end zone when I needed to . I'll look forward to resting up a little during the break but the good news is that I'm no worse physically. I can work fine the way I am now"."
The only planned activity other than practice for the team between this weekend and the June 20 playoff will be a Meet and Greet with fans at Bigger Chevrolet, 1385 East Chicago in Elgin on June 6,11 a.m. to 2 p.m. For further information,go to www.chicagoslaughter.com.
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