Win would give Rage division title
June 8, 2005 - National Indoor Football League (NIFL)
RiverCity Rage News Release
"Nothing short of a championship will be sufficient for this team in 2005"
That was the answer Rage Head Football Coach Mike Wyatt gave to a reporter in early March when asked how he viewed his team's prospects for the upcoming NIFL season. It's been the phrase around which the entire season has focused for players, assistant coaches, and other team personnel, and as Wyatt has said many times throughout the season, "it's a long, haul, it's 14 games spread out over 16 weeks, with practices, travel, wins and losses, and injuries. I've told the guys over and over, don't get too high or too low over any one game, or even series of games, because it's too easy to burn out. Right now, we are where I figured we would be, poised and confident, thankfully relatively healthy, and ready for the playoffs. This is a football team ready to slam head-first into the post season."
The first tangible reward for The River City Rage of the NIFL is on tap for Friday Night at the Family Arena. A Rage victory over the Cincinnati Marshals will give Mike Wyatt's overachieving troops the division crown in the NIFL's Atlantic East and home field advantage throughout the conference playoffs. The Rage lead the division with a record of 9-2 on the year and are undefeated in 7 games in 2005 at the Family Arena. It all began in early December of last year with new owners, new uniforms, a new turf, and new outreaches to the fans and the St. Louis metro area media. Along the way, new talent emerged, employed and engrained to mesh as a unit on both sides of the line, guided by a coach who had experienced success at every level of coaching, who earlier in the year achieved his 200th career victory before the home fans in a game that saw his renowned offensive machine put 90 points on the board, and now that new era of indoor football in St. Louis takes the first step towards achieving the goal, the standard of excellence, boldly set by a coach who believed it from the start.
Kick-0ff is slated for 7pm at Family Arena. The game will be broadcast on 1380 ESPN and audio-streamed on both the ESPN and ragefootball.com websites. Friday is Fan Appreciation Night, and team owners are teaming up with Side Pockets Restaurant and Sports Bar in St. Charles to offer a pre-game party for fans prior to kick-off. Side Pockets will offer food and drink specials beginning at 3pm. Fans will have a chance to meet the players, coaches and cheerleaders till 5pm. The team owners and other front office personnel will be on hand until 6pm.
Anyone flirting with kick-off time at 7pm had best be warned.
The River City Rage hit the turf in the first quarter firing on all 8 offensive cylinders! Spearheaded by assistant coaches Dan Montgomery and J.T. Thompson, the Rage offensive machine led by quarterback Clay Groefsema has outscored it's opponents by nearly double in 2005, putting up 161 points in the first 15 minutes of play, and giving up only 82.
The Rage is second in the NIFL, overall, in scoring, averaging 58.7 points per game, an average that has remained at or near 60 ppg since the season opener. Groefsema and back-up quarterback Anthony Fisher have accounted for 2,108 passing yards in the first 11 games thus far, with 196 completions in 317 passing attempts. The Groefsema-Fisher signal calling has produced 57 touchdown passes with only 12 interceptions. The Rage chalks up 2,936 yards in total offense on 536 plays from scrimmage, an average of 5.5 yards per play. In the all important 'Red-Zone' The Rage hits paydirt at an amazing 79.5%!!
Coming off his seven touchdown record setting performance against the Lincoln Capitols, running back Sha-Ron Edwards continues to be one of the top 10 statistical leaders in the NIFL. A former Illinois State All-Gateway first team selection, Edwards has parlayed his talents to the pro game, accounting for 519 yards in 124 rushing attempts, and finding the end zone 15 times in 9 games on the active roster.
Wide Receiver Scott Pingel, now in his third season with the team, continues to be among the leading pass catchers in the NIFL. The sure handed, acrobatic product of Westminster College has shown fans around the league why his name sets atop even that of the great Jerry Rice when college receiving records are measured.
Pingel has hauled in 72 passes, accounting for 712 yards, and 20 touchdowns thus far.
Where passing is concerned, Wyatt's team is hardly a one-man band! "The largest wide receiver in the NIFL", 6'5" 284 lb Moses Regular, has been a showcase performer, especially effective hauling in shots from Groefsema and Fisher over the middle as the third wide-out. Regular has been his namesake in pulling down 45 passes, good for 496 yards and 14 touchdowns. Hurtis Chinn accounts for 42 pass receptions, 624 yards and 15 TD's.
A revamped and revved up defense has been nearly air-tight for the indoor game, guided by assistant coaches Charles Edmunds (Defensive Line), Marc Wilson (Linebackers) and Secondary Coach Jeff Hunt. Working under Wyatt's direction, the defense has at least one Rage player in every major defensive category in the NIFL.
Defensive Back Andy 'pick-em-off' Peterson leads the team in interceptions with 7 on the season. Right behind him is Maurice McClain with 5 on the year.
And it's worth saying again, The Rage get the guy with the football! Big number 38, Linebacker Terrell Washington has accounted for 48 solo and 71 assisted tackles so far. Safety Clarence 'CJ' Jones, a Mizzou product, comes out of the secondary fast and hard to account for 40 solo and 63 assisted pull- downs. Andy Peterson adds 29 solo tackles and 57 assisted throw-downs to the Rage season totals, and Defensive end Bruce Blue rounds it out with 31 and 35 respectively.
And Blue makes his presence known to opposing quarterbacks around the league, ranking third on the NIFL sack list with 9 on the season. His counterpart at defensive end, James Green, has recorded 5 and Lenny Williams has four.
The Cincinnati Marshals will come to Family Arena having won their game last weekend at U.S. Bank Arena. The Marshals defeated the Rome Renegades by the score of 43 to 33. The team also comes in with a new Head Football Coach. Tony Wells, a former offensive co-ordinator with the NIFL's Miami Morays takes over the reins from former Marshals and ex-NFL coach Ed Biles, who resigned recently due to personal reasons. Biles was coaching the team in April when The Rage defeated Cincinnati at U.S. Bank Arena.
The River City Rage lead the Atlantic East Division of the NIFL with a season record of 9-2. The Dayton Warbirds are in second place with at 6-5. The Marshals will be fighting for a playoff spot on Friday night, currently in third place with an even .500 record at 5-5. The winless New Jersey X-Treme round out the division at 0-10.
PLAYOFFS SLATED FOR SAVVIS CENTER!!
The River City Rage will be hoping the home field advantage enjoyed at Family Arena will hang tough when post season play heads to downtown St. Louis next month. Due to scheduling conflicts for available dates at Family Arena in St. Charles, the 2005 playoffs will be moved to Savvis Center, a first for indoor football in St. Louis! The first playoff game is scheduled for the weekend of July 8-10, the exact date and time to be announced
QUOTES FROM RAGE HEAD FOOTBALL COACH MIKE WYATT
(On the Cincinnati game Friday night)
"They come in hungry for a win, and they need one to help their playoff chances. They've got a new head coach, and won their first game under Tony Wells last week, so they bring a new motivation to the game, different than week two when we defeated them in game two up there."
(On stopping Cincinnati's Rayshawn Askew, who accounted for 7 touchdowns in the first meeting between the two teams)
"Well, there's no doubt he's a great player, but what you do in a situation like this is try to prevent him from being the difference maker in the game. It's not like we can effectively plan only for him defensively, because there's no way to tell where he'll be lining up. Keep in mind, though, we are a more effective team on defense than we were in that second game, and as great as he played, we still came out on top."
(The one thing that has made an impact on this season so far)
"If I had to point to just one thing, it would be experience. And that's from the standpoint of both coaches and players. The fact that we've played in the same system for two years and while some personnel changes have occurred with the team, the same core of players is still there and that makes a huge difference. Last year we went to the playoffs as a wild card team. This season we can go as division champs and have home field advantage. A big plus for the guys."
National Indoor Football League Stories from June 8, 2005
- Listen to Maulers on the Road - Montgomery Bears
- Win would give Rage division title - RiverCity Rage
- Drillers return to practice field in search of a win - Beaumont Drillers
- Drillers to host Corpus Christi on Saturday - Beaumont Drillers
- June 11 renegades game to salute our armed forces - Rome Renegades
- Fever look to extend winning streak - Tri-Cities Fever
- ThunderBolts fight to stay in playoff picture - Lakeland ThunderBolts
- Kreatures to hold St. Cloud Youth Football Night - Kissimmee Kreatures
- Lubbock Gunslingers to Hold $6000 Give Away - Lubbock GunSlingers
- Lubbock Gunslingers Gunning for Breast Cancer - Lubbock GunSlingers
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