Steamwheelers Improve to 5-3 After Defeating Louisville 57-51
May 25, 2007 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Quad City Steamwheelers News Release
(Moline, Ill.) - The Quad City Steamwheelers are 5-3 and in first place in the Midwest Division of the arenafootball2 league after a 57-51 come from behind victory over the Louisville Fire on Friday, May 25 at The MARK of the Quad Cities. With 22 seconds remaining in the game, quarterback J. J. Raterink ran the ball in on a one-yard quarterback keeper to give the Steamwheelers a 57-51 lead in front of 3,143 fans.
The Fire opened the fourth quarter with a 44-35 lead thanks to a one-yard touchdown run by Eddie Yauch after Louisville recovered a Jeff Macrea fumble on the Steamwheelers 14 yard line. Raterink, who finished the game with 299 yards and six touchdowns, found wide receiver Thomas Anthony on a 44-yard touchdown pass two plays later to pull Quad City to within two at 44-42.
Fire quarterback Shane Adler, who replaced starter Joel Steele to start the second half, hit Tiger Jones on a 12-yard pass with 7:43 left to extend the Fire lead to nine points. The Steamwheelers answered when Macrea, the ADT Defensive Player of the Game, ran for a two-yard touchdown on a six play, 40-yard drive that ate up four minutes and eight seconds of the clock.
Two plays later, Macrea recovered a Fire fumble to setup the game-winning touchdown. After Raterink's one-yard run the quarterback hit Jack Walker Jr., on a two-point conversion to give the 'Wheelers the 57-51 victory.
The Quad City Steamwheelers scored first when Anthony caught a 14-yard pass just one minute and 44 seconds into the game. Louisville answered with a safety followed by an eight-yard run by Quorey Payne and an eight-yard pass from Steele to Lawrence Matthews to put the Fire up 16-7 after one.
The Steamwheelers responded with 22 unanswered points in the second quarter after Raterink found Walker Jr., for two touchdown passes and opened the quarter with a 30-yard pass to Anthony.
With the Steamwheelers up 29-16 at the half Louisville started the third quarter on fire with an Adler to Jones touchdown pass and a Rusty Midlam 44-yard interception return to put the Fire back on top 30-29. Jones answered a 31-yard Walker Jr. touchdown catch with a 29-yard catch of his own with no time remaining in the third quarter to keep the Fire up by two at 37-35.
Walker Jr., and Anthony led the Steamwheelers with three touchdown catches. Walker had 114 yards on nine catches, while Anthony tallied 107 yards on seven catches. On defense, Sidney Lewis led the Steamwheelers with 8.5 tackles, while Nickolas Kerr finished with 5.5.
For the Fire, Steele finished the game with 64 yards and one touchdown pass on nine completions, while backup Adler netted three touchdown passes and 152 yards on nine completions. Jones had a game-high 169 yards receiving while finishing with three touchdown passes on 11 catches. Defensively, former 'Wheeler Matt Forbes led the Fire with seven tackles, while Jerome Jones finished with six tackles and two forced fumbles.
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