Utah Blaze Pick Up First Win of the Season
May 1, 2010 - Arena Football League (AFL)
Utah Blaze News Release
SALT LAKE CITY - Utah quarterback Brett Elliott (6-3, 210, Linfield) completed 20-of-37 passes for 237 yards and a career-high seven touchdowns in leading the Utah Blaze to their first win fo the season with a 65-46 victory over the Bossier-Shreveport BattleWings Friday night at Maakoa Field at the E Center.
With the win, the Blaze are now 1-3, while the BattleWings fall to 2-2.
"We finally got our first win. It's exciting. The guys played hard," Utah Blaze head coach Ernesto Purnsley said. "The offense kept the pressure on and we held serve on defense."
The Blaze tallied 240 yards total offense to Bossier-Shreveport's 345, but the Blaze defense held the BattleWings on downs three times and had one interception.
"Our defense played great and gave us a lot of opportunities with short fields and I can't say enough," Elliott said. "It's been a long three week for them."
Elliott completed 12-of-24 passes for 128 yards and three touchdowns in leading the Blaze to their first first-half lead of the season at 24-20.
WR Aaron Boone (6-3, 213, Kentucky), who finished with eight catches for 92 yards and three touchdowns, had TD receptions of 16 and six yards in the first half.
The Blaze opened the scoring with a 17-yard pass from Elliott to WR Chris Francies (6-2, 205, UTEP). After the BattleWings answered, the Blaze took the 10-7 lead on a Ben Scott (6-3, 195, Johns Hopkins) 25-yard field goal.
After Boone's two touchdown catches, the BattleWings were poised to take the lead at the half after driving the ball inside the Utah five, but the Blaze held the BattleWings on downs to take the four-point lead into the break.
Following an interception by DB Toure Carter (5-10, 190, Ashland) on the BattleWings' first drive of the second half, Elliott connected with WR Wendall Williams (6-0, 190, Rhode Island) from eight yards out to increase the Blaze lead to 30-20 with 11:55 left in the third quarter.
The BattleWings cut the lead to three, but a nice return by Brandon Hampton (5-9, 190 Cal) gave the Blaze a first-and-goal from the eight, and one play later, Elliott connected with Williams for the second time in the game and the Blaze lead was back to 10.
Elliott hit Boone for the third time in the game - this time from six yards out - to give the Blaze their largest lead of the game to that point at 44-33 just before the end of the third quarter.
Bossier-Shreveport scored to trim the lead to five, and then drove the ball inside the Utah 10 with less than eight minutes left in the game, and Hampton thwarted the drive with a four-down pass break-up.
Moments later, Elliott hooked up with Francies with a 30-yard touchdown pass, which was the Cutter's Catch of the game, with 5:18 left to put the game out of reach. Elliott added a one-yard run with two minutes left, and Francies returned an onside kick for a touchdown with 50 seconds left.
Francies finished with seven catches for 92 yards and three scores (one kick return), while Williams added four catches for 37 yards and two touchdowns.
Elliott was named the Russell Athletic Player Offensive Player of the Game, while Carter was named the Riddell Defensive Player of the Game, Hampton was the JLS Ironman of the game and Boone was the Playmaker of the Game.
The Blaze will have a bye next week before traveling to Milwaukee for a meeting with the Iron in May 14. The game kicks at 6 p.m. MT and can be seen on the NFL Network.
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Arena Football League Stories from May 1, 2010
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- Utah Blaze Pick Up First Win of the Season - Utah Blaze
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