Warbirds to battle top-ranked River City on Friday
June 23, 2005 - National Indoor Football League (NIFL)
Dayton Bulldogs News Release
DAYTON, Ohio - It's not a tune-up! Cliché or not, the final regular-season home game Friday night for the Dayton Warbirds means a chance to improve their position for the upcoming National Indoor Football League playoffs.
The Warbirds (6-6) meet the Atlantic East Division-leading River City Rage (10-3) in a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday night at the E.J. Nutter Center.
The importance of Dayton finishing two games over .500 hangs in the balance, as they already will have capitalized on forfeiture by the New Jersey Extreme, who was sidelined by the NIFL for the remainder of the season last week.
PLAYOFF POSITION IN BALANCE
A win gives the âBirds an 8-6 record, avenges a 48-37 loss at St. Charles, Missouri, against the Rage on May 14, and puts them in the top four teams of the Atlantic Conference including Daytona Beach (8-5) and Montgomery and Miami (both 7-6) going into the next-to-last weekend of the regular season.
"I would have to say these bye weeks have helped us get healthy," said Dayton head coach Matt King, who will definitely have some changes in store for the Rage. King was suspended from coaching the game in River City because of a complaint on sending video late to the Missouri team.
So the game takes on a ârevengeful' attitude in several ways. In the last meeting, Dayton had 11 penalties called against it while the Rage managed four less. Warbirds' quarterback Steve Bellisari was only nine of 23, so the former Buckeye has something to prove against river dwellers.
What will take on significant is Dayton's new look from a personnel standpoint. Gone are linebacker Joe Cooper (Achilles injury), running back Pepe Pearson (now head coach of the Daytona Beach Hawgs) and wide receiver Anthony Tyus, who had a 30-yard TD catch in the May 14th game, is now on injured reserve.
FACE-LIFT FOR DAYTON
River City could see as many as 12 new Dayton players including recently signed defensive backs Kevin Johnson, Ronald Folds and Milton Bowen; running back Yusef Kelly and lineman Robert Akindele. Veteran defensive lineman Ryan Terry, the team's leading sack man, did not play at St. Charles the last time the two teams met.
The tale of the tape in the teams' past games allows a look at how close these two teams are, despite the difference in their overall records. Dayton is 4th in the league in scoring (52.6 points a game) and the Rage (60.1) is second, for example.
Total offense, in yardage, is River City 265 (2nd in the NIFL) and the Warbirds 256 (4th). It couldn't be any closer in turnover margin where the âBirds are a +6 and the Rage a +8. The Warbirds to have an edge in one category, however, and that is rushing offense where they rank first in the league. Thanks in part to Bellisari (48.3 yards a game), Keith Brooks (31.5), the former back Pearson (35.6), backup quarterback Kerrick Cooper (14.6) and newcomer Mike McConnell (7.7), Dayton racks up 110.3 yards rushing a game. River City ranks 4th, collecting 80.2 yards a contest. Dayton also has more rushing touchdowns, 45-37.
BALANCED ATTACK BY BOTH
The game won't be won on the ground, but overall play, and especially in the trenches, will have the best team winning. Dayton will have to contend with Rage quarterback Clay Groefsema, who was 17 of 29 for 269 yards and four TDs against Dayton in their last meeting. That yardage was the most thrown against the âBirds this season.
Groefsema has the 5th best QB rating in the league (106.8) and has thrown 54 touchdowns, 22 of those to league-leading receiver Scott Pringel.
Bellisari is up for the duel. He always loves a challenge and he's the only quarterback in the NIFL in the top 10 rushers. He's scored 14 TDs running and thrown for 34, with 14 of those to Maurice Lee. Lee ranks 5th in receptions (65) and 7th in receiving yards (743). The former Ohio State Buckeye also leads the team in kickoff returns and is barely out of the top 10 with a 20.7 return average. Included in his 1,224 yards (on 59 runbacks) is a team-best 58 yard KOR for a TD against Billings on May 28.
Whatever the stats, it will be a battle of from the âheart' in this one, a test of âwills' and âa pulling up of the bootstraps' in this âbarn burner.' Set aside the clichés. Please.
Tickets for tomorrow's last home game are available at the Nutter Center box office and at any Ticketmaster location. Game time is set for 7 p.m. with gates to the Nutter Center opening at 6 p.m. All tickets are $10.
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National Indoor Football League Stories from June 23, 2005
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- Warbirds to battle top-ranked River City on Friday - Dayton Bulldogs
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