Fire unseat champions
The plot was good enough.
Former Louisville offensive coordinator and defending ArenaCup champion Spokane Shock head coach Adam Shackleford faces his old boss, Fire coach Tommy Johnson, in an arenafootball2 showdown.
But rarely is the sequel as good as the original – and the defending ArenaCup champions were knocked out in the opening round of the af2 playoffs Saturday night as the Fire extinguished the Shock 62-35 in front of 8,272 fans at the Arena.
“Anybody that thinks it’s easy to repeat as a champion is nuts,” said Johnson. “It’s a tough task. In this league you have to reload every year because you lose a lot of players to a higher level, and I think (Shackleford) did an outstanding job getting his team reloaded.”
As loaded as the Shock (12-5) were this season and as good as they have played the past couple of weeks – Louisville came out stronger on all sides of the ball.
Receiver Tiger Jones caught seven passes for 121 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Fire offense – which came out strongly from the start to take a 35-7 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Shock’s armor was chinked when fullback Katon Bethay was helped off the field in the first quarter.
The Shock veteran blew out his right knee and didn’t return – limiting the team to its passing game and leaving quarterback Andrico Hines without the additional coverage he has had since Bethay switched to fullback three weeks ago.
“You never want to watch – even when you are winning and injured it’s bad, but when you’re losing it’s that much worse,” Bethay said in regard to watching his team struggle from the sideline.
“I asked them to put me in a knee brace and let me go back out there, but they told me it would be career-ending if I hurt it worse, so I had to stay out – it was really frustrating.”
The Fire defense intercepted Hines twice and recovered four Shock fumbles – two of which led to Fire touchdowns.
“A lot of interceptions and turnovers happened because guys were in the right place at the right time,” Johnson said. “It’s because (Shackleford and I) know what each other likes to do – and that makes it tough … we just had a couple more breaks than they did.”
Shackleford, acknowledging the Shock errors, gave the Fire the credit.
“Six turnovers and two dropped fourth downs are not going to win a football game,” he said. “We had trouble getting protection all night – losing Katon didn’t help – but I give Louisville a lot of credit. The Arena didn’t affect them, the fans didn’t affect them … they rattled us early and we couldn’t recover.”
Shock receivers Kelvin Dickens and Raul Vijil scored two touchdowns each.
Dickens finished with 17 catches and 191 yards. Antwone Savage was held to one score.
Hines completed 33 of 51 passes, racking up 357 yards and connecting five touchdown passes and Shock defensive back Alex Teems had two interceptions.
Though this wasn’t the ending first-time head coach Shackleford was looking for, it was the kind of season of which he was proud.
“I’ve never coached a better group of guys,” Shackleford said. “We preach character and talent, and to have the guys I’ve had all year was really a treat for me to coach. I hope all these guys move up – if they don’t, I hope to have a few of them back.
“This is a good place to be – the town has been good to us and I couldn’t have asked for a better situation as a first-year head coach.”
Notes
Fire quarterback Joel Steele, who Shackleford coached for four years at Anderson University and two years in Louisville with the Fire, completed 14 of 23 passes for 253 yards and five TDs. … Shock receiver Savage was limited to one TD, despite collecting 84 yards on six catches. Chico Mackey had as many catches, for 36 yards. … For the first time this season, the Shock played in front of fewer than 10,000 fans. The game was the only one at the Arena to not sell out.