Wheelers' rally comes up short on road
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Staff report | Thursday, June 19, 2008 |
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Looking like road kill for a second straight trip, the Quad-City Steamwheelers battled their way back into a Sunday afternoon matinee at Rupp Arena before falling 69-55 to the Midwest Division-leading Lexington Horsemen.
Down 49-14 with a minute gone in the second half, J.J. Raterink, Jesse Schmidt and the Steamwheelers battled back within 55-49 with less than 5 minutes to play in the game but then couldn’t close the deal.
The loss, the Wheelers fifth in six games, sends them into the season’s second half having to fight for their playoff lives at 3-5.
Lexington, an af2 newcomer, improved to 6-2 behind a seven-catch, six-touchdown performance by 270-pound receiver Chad Spencer and a tidy 19-completion, nine-touchdown game from veteran quarterback Eddie Eviston.
The Steamwheelers wasted a huge afternoon by Schmidt, who had 13 catches for 196 yards and five touchdowns. Raterink rallied from a bad start to finish with 381 passing yards on a 31-for-52 day.
The quarterback threw six of his eight touchdowns after intermission to spark the Q-C rally but finished the day with three interceptions to run his season total to 15.
Head coach Troy Biladeau was pleased with the fight his club showed in the second half .
“We had a chance — one thing is the guys didn’t quit playing,’’ Biladeau said on his postgame radio show.
Now, he hopes the Steanwheelers can bring that fighting spirit to the second half of the season, starting Saturday at Iowa.
“It is still do-able,’’ coach Troy Biladeau said of a playoff push, noting his team is tied for the American Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot right now. “We have just got to start winning some football games.’’
Specifically, the Wheelers need to win on the road, where they fell to 1-3 Sunday.
“We have got to put four quarters together on the road,’’ said the coach. “We are a pretty good team at home. We just start so slow on the road.’’
The Steamwheelers trailed 42-14 at intermission, marking the second straight opening half on the road in which they have been dented for 42.
At Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earlier this month, they fell behind 28-0.
In Rupp Arena, they trailed 21-0 before finding the end zone.
Even then, they had a prime opportunity to climb back into the contest after Raterink found Schmidt for a deep touchdown pass as time expired in the first quarter, and then the Steamwheelers special teams created a safety on the ensuing kickoff.
But Lexington caught the visitors off guard with an onside kick after the safety and John Cooper recovered with no Steamwheelers nearby.
Eviston and the Horsemen quickly scored, and then Raterink was picked off on fourth down by J.T. Haskins on the ensuing possession. Haskins’ 47-yard scoring return dug the Wheelers a new hole.
Raterink was intercepted again on the third play of the second half, and Eviston followed with his sixth TD pass to make it 49-14.
The Steamwheelers’ defense didn’t get its first stop until midway through the third but followed that with a second. Then, when Raterink and Co. converted their second fourth down in six opportunities, that for a 13-yard TD strike to Kris Peters, the Wheelers trailed 49-35.
When Kevin Adams narrowly missed on an interception attempt on the following possession, hulking Horsemen receiver Spencer turned it into a 47-yard touchdown reception.
Another Raterink-Peters hookup made it 55-42, then, after failing to collar an onside kick attempt, the Steamwheelers defense held on a fourth-and-1, and then Raterink hit Schmidt with a 40-yard bomb to make it 55-49 with less than 5 minutes to play.
But then William Mulder, who opened the game with a 53-yard kick return, went 56 with the kickoff to set up a 3-yard Lexington scoring toss, and Raterink’s third interception of the game followed to snuff the rally.
The two teams exchanged touchdowns in the final minutes.
“It’s frustrating,’’ Biladeau said. “We ended up with 55 points. It just took the offense a long time to get going. We dug a big hole. And you can’t give up 69 points.’’
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