Spokane preps for final visit to Tri-Cities to take on Fever
April 21, 2016 - Indoor Football League (IFL)
Spokane Empire News Release
SPOKANE, Wash. - The Spokane Empire (5-1, 2-1) will go on the road for the second straight week to take on the Tri-Cities Fever (3-4, 3-2) in Week 10 of the 2016 Indoor Football League season. Kickoff is scheduled for Saturday, April 23rd at 7:00 p.m. PT at the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Washington.
The Empire will visit Kennewick for the second and final time during the 2016 regular season coming off of three consecutive wins to start the month of April. The teams will face off two more times during the regular season, both in Spokane, on April 29th and May 20th.
Spokane visited Iowa last weekend and posted their best defensive performance of the season in a 54-34 win over the Barnstormers. Linebacker Nick Haag was awarded Week 9 Defensive Player of the Week honors after registering 16 total tackles and two tackles for loss in the contest.
The first half of play produced only five total scores between the two teams. Spokane would go on to post 35-points in the final two quarters of play, which included four touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
The Barnstormers had a chance late to close the lead trailing 34-41, but Spokane would go on to return a kickoff for a touchdown and then follow up with an interception by defensive back Tyree Robinson on the goal line to propel the Empire to a 54-34 victory.
While Spokane is currently atop the Intense Conference while Tri-Cities enters Week 9 in the middle of the pack with a 3-2 conference record (3-4 overall). All seven of their games this season have been decided by nine points or less, including a 39-31 win last weekend in Colorado. Just two weeks ago, the Empire posted a season-high 97 points against the Crush.
Through their first six games of the season, Spokane is ranked second in scoring offense (58.8 points per game) while giving up 50.5 points per game defensively (ranked sixth).
Tri-Cities has only broken the 50-point mark once this season, which was in their season opener loss to the Empire. The Fever have failed to produce more than 39 points in their previous four contests. They will enter the weekend fielding the eighth ranked offense (41.3), but have limited their opponents to only 42.3 points per game (ranked second).
This Saturday's game will be available online via IFLLive.TV and on AM 700 ESPN radio Spokane with the pregame show beginning at 6:30 p.m. PT.
• Discuss this story on the Indoor Football League message board...
Indoor Football League Stories from April 21, 2016
- Project FANchise Launches First-Ever Fan-Run Pro Sports Team - Salt Lake Screaming Eagles
- Salt Lake City Joins IFL - IFL
- Spokane preps for final visit to Tri-Cities to take on Fever - Spokane Empire
- Iowa travels to Green Bay to take on the Blizzard - Iowa Barnstormers
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
