Wolves tear apart Conquest
July 18, 2008 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Manchester Wolves News Release
The Manchester Wolves continued to control their own destiny and took another big step toward the arenafootball2 league playoffs on Friday night by crushing the Conquest 70-49 at the Times Union Center in Albany, N. Y.
The Wolves improved their record to 8-7 with one game remaining in the regular season and have now racked up seven victories in their last eight games under Head Coach Danton Barto after getting off to a dismal 1-7 start. Manchester never trailed for four quarters and while the victory all but assured Manchester of a berth in the post season, it killed the Conquest's hopes of making it into the playoffs and dropped Albany to 5-10.
Quarterback James Pinkney, no longer playing like a rookie, turned in another outsanding game, completing 16 of 21 passes for 233 yards with six passing touchdowns and adding another score on the ground. He did serve up one interception but it came on the final play of the first half as time expired and therefore did no damage. Pinkney, voted the Schutt Offensive Player of the Game, was forced to leave the contest midway through the fourth quarter with bruised ribs and his status for next week's final regular season tilt against the Corpus Christi Sharks at the Verrizon Wireless Arena in Manchester was unknown at press time.
Fellow rookie quarterback Ben King came on in relief of Pinkney and finished out the win by tacking on two more touchdowns while completing three of five throws for 40 yards.
Albany quarterback Joe DeLuise, who was making his first af2 start after relieving the injured Dan Cole in the second half last week and playing a big part in the Conquest's upset win at Louisville, had a rough introduction from the start. Manchester's defense, which hurried and pressured him on almost every down and tightly covered his receivers, forced DeLuise into two interceptions while holding him to just 20 completions of 43 throws and 223 yards.
DeLuise did throw four scoring strikes and added another two touchdowns on the ground, but it wasn't enough to combat Manchester's high-powered offense which moved the ball up and down the field seemingly at will.
Wideout Steven Savoy had another impressive outing, catching eight passes for 106 yards and scoring three touchdowns while Bradly Chavey, who scored two touchdowns, was a force again on offense, defense, and special teams. Chavez recovered all three of Albany's onside kick attempts to keep the ball in the Wolves hands and give them fantastic field position in the second half.
The Wolves have now beaten the Conquest in three of the four match-ups between the two American Conference East Division rivals this season. They will play the Sharks, who are battling for an af2 National Conference playoff spot, on Brady Sullivan Field on Saturday night July 26th.
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