Vipers beat up Wheelers, never trail
- Font Size:
- Default font size
- Larger font size
By Craig DeVrieze | Friday, June 27, 2008 |
Quad City Steamwheelers' Jesse Schmidt (22) is tackled by Tennessee Valley Vipers' Garrigan (21) at the i wireless Center on Friday. (Elisa Petersen/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo
Beaten and beaten up, the Quad-City Steamwheelers limped out of the i wireless Center on Friday night with their three-game winning streak a casualty of a 55-35 hammering by the Tennessee Valley Vipers.
The now 6-6 Steamwheelers’ American Conference playoff hopes could be hurting, too, if they can’t bounce back next week vs. Midwest Division-leading Green Bay.
Tennessee Valley knocked star Q-C receiver Kris Peters out of the game inside the final minute of the second quarter, and then a parade of Wheelers, albeit most just briefly, followed him to the sidelines with various hurts throughout the second half.
“Darned near half the team,” Steamwheelers coach Troy Biladeau said of an injured list that included defensive backs Jordan Davis and David Beverly, nose guard Andrew Jilles and fullback Russell Monk.
The vast menu of ouchies resulted in Beverly playing receiver much of the second half, fellow DB Kevin Adams also playing receiver for a few plays, jack linebacker Malik Jackson playing in the secondary for a series and two-way lineman Russell Hammond lining up at fullback for a set.
“We had some weird combinations out there,” Biladeau said.
The mostly costly combo, though, proved to be freshly added offensive linemen Ryan Bell, who replaced the departed Nick Ruud at center, and hulking former Peoria Pirate Adam Tadisch, who supplanted Hammond at guard.
Without benefit of much practice, that duo found themselves up against one of af2’s best pass-rushing fronts and what resulted was a track meet, with Q-C quarterback J.J. Raterink as the finish line.
Tennessee Valley (8-4) recorded seven sacks, three by nose guard Terrance Ford. He also had one of five quarterback hurries.
Meanwhile, the Steamwheelers defense notched just a lone stop against the Vipers and quarterback Kevin Eakin, whose 32-yard, broken-play dash on a third-and-15 just minutes into the game staked the visitors to a 7-0 lead they never relinquished.
Thanks to a couple of in-tight-quarters, second-quarter touchdown catches by Peters, the Steamwheelers somehow were in range, down 27-12 at intermission and appeared to have a key opening early in the third quarter.
That happened when Eakin scrambled 30 yards to the goal line again, only to have the ball punched loose by Malik Jackson. Davis recovered at the 1, but that seemingly golden gift turned to brass just as quickly when Beverly, lined up now in the backfield, couldn’t collar a Raterink pitch on the next play and Vipers lineman Rico Reese fell on it for a score.
“I dropped it, that’s all I’m going to say on that,” said Beverly, who appeared to want to say more.
Down 34-12, the Wheelers unsuccessfully spent the rest of the night fighting back from three scores behind.
“They thumped us pretty good,” Biladeau said.
The Steamwheelers will have to rally next week against the division leaders, and perhaps without the services of their key receiver.
Biladeau couldn’t confirm that Peters suffered a concussion when he took a knee to the forehead blocking on a screen pass. But the player wobbled off the playing field.
“He was pretty goofy,” Biladeau agreed, but said of Peters’ availability next week, “That’s a doctor’s decision.”
The final four games include Green Bay (9-3 after a Friday win), Spokane (11-0) and Lexington (7-4), as well as a second road tilt at archrival Iowa, which is 3-8.
“They don’t get any easier,” Biladeau allowed of the playoff-push agenda confronting his now banged-up outfit.
Wheelers scoreboard
Score
Tennessee Valley 55, Quad-Cities 35
Next
The Steamwheelers host division-leading Green Bay on Friday, looking to avenge a 53-32 loss April 25 in Green Bay. Only one home game will remain after that, the Thursday evening season-ender vs. Lexington on July 24.
Wheeler camps coming
The Steamwheelers will be hosting two three-day football camps at the OS Sports Complex in July.
High school-aged players can sign up for the July 7-9 camp. Cost is $55.
A second camp for kindergartners through third-graders and fourth-graders through eighth-graders will take place July 14-16. Cost is $28.
Steamwheelers coaches Troy Biladeau and Montra Edwards will conduct the camps with assists from player J.J. Raterink, Kris Peters and Jesse Schmidt.
The registration deadline is July 1 at 5 p.m. Call (309) 797-8500 to register. Additional information is available at steamwheelers.com.
Dancing with Jesse
Steamwheelers receiver Jesse Schmidt will be among nine local celebrities participating in the “Ballroom with the Quad-City Celebrities” dance program at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Outing Club in Davenport.
Schmidt and his partner will dance the paso doble routine perfected by Miami linebacker Jason Taylor on the TV hit, “Dancing with the Stars.”
Deckmate McKenzy also will participate.
Tickets are $20. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Fans live
Another crack af2 officiating crew almost allowed a Tennessee Valley end zone interception off the hands of a fan in the stands, before huddling and getting it figured out.
The refs could argue that wouldn’t have happened if Q-C fans had better hands.
Statistics
Tennessee Valley 13 14 14 14 — 55
Quad-Cities 0 12 8 15 — 35
First quarter
TV — Kevin Eakin 32 run (Nick Hayes kick)
TV — Desmond Foster 3 run (kick failed)
Second quarter
Q-C — Kris Peters 8 pass from J.J. Raterink (kick failed)
TV — Alonzo Nix 23 pass from Eakin (Hayes kick)
Q-C — Peters 6 pass from Raterink (kick failed)
TV — Gary Elliott 12 pass from Eakin (Hayes kick)
Third quarter
TV — Rico Reese recovered fumble in end zone (Hayes kick)
Q-C — Deontrae Johnson 20 pass from Raterink (Jesse Schmidt pass from Raterink)
TV — Maurice Brown 25 pass from Eakin (Hayes kick)
Fourth quarter
Q-C — Johnson 1 pass from Raterink (Derek Pearson kick)
TV — Nix 10 pass from Eakin (Hayes kick)
TV — Benji McDowell 2 run (Hayes kick)
Q-C — Jesse Schmidt 10 pass from Brian Zbydniewski (Schmidt pass from Zbydniewski)
T Q-C
First downs 17 17
Rushes-yards (NET) 7-56 6-1
Passing yards (NET) 188 205
Passes Att-Comp-Int 25-16-0 40-22-0
Total offense plays-yards 32-244 52-206
Fumble returns-yards 0-0 0-0
Punt returns-yards 0-0 0-0
Kickoff returns-yards 5-53 8-170
Interception returns-yards 0-0 0-0
Punts (number-avg) 0-0.0 0-0.0
Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-1
Penalties-yards 5-30 6-45
Possession time 23:56 36:04
Third-down conversions 3 of 4 4 of 10
Fourth-down conversions 0 of 0 1 of 4
Red-zone scores-chances 4-5 5-8
Sacks by: number-yards 6-35 0-0
Individual statistics
RUSHING: Tennessee Valley, Eakin, 2-57; Mcdowell 3-2; Foster 2-minus 3. Q-C, Raterink 2-7; Monk 2-1; Schmidt 1-minus 3; Beverly 1-minus 4.
PASSING: Tennessee Valley, Eakin 16-25-0-188. Q-C, Raterink 20-37-0-203; Zbydniewski 2-3-0-37; Team 0-0-0-minus 35.
RECEIVING: Tennessee Valley, Brown 9-111; Nix 4-48; Elliott 3-29. Q-C, Johnson 9-99; Schmidt 7-90; Peters 5-45; Beverly 1-6.
Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
del.icio.us
Digg
NewsVine
Fark
redditMore Stories By Craig DeVrieze
» More Football Stories
Highest Rated Articles from the last 7 Days
- Live Broadcast Studio / Stage
- Multi-Camera TV Studio 24Hrs Live Shot / Satellite Media Tours.
- fastlanebroadcast.com
- Maintenance Professionals
- Practical, Valuable, Timely Info Free In-Depth Industry Articles.
- www.supplylink.com
- 2008 Diet Of The Year:
- Finally, A Diet That Really Works! Seen On CNN, NBC, CBS & Fox News.
- www.Wu-YiSource.com
- Ads by Yahoo!
