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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Spokane loses a wild one

I just filed my game story from Spokane's 72-68 loss to Cleveland on Saturday night at the Arena. I'm not sure I've seen a crazier game than this one in the Shock's five years of playing arena football.

Read on for the unedited article that will run in Sunday's S-R.

By Jim Meehan

jimm@spokesman.com; (208) 765-7131

Arena Football League games are often zany affairs and the Spokane-Cleveland battle Saturday night was every bit of that and more.

There were five lead changes in the final 2:06 with Cleveland’s Brent Holmes delivering the decisive blow in a back-and-forth contest, returning a kickoff 56 yards for a touchdown the clinched the Gladiators’ wild 72-68 win in front of 9,974 stunned fans at the Arena.

Spokane (2-2) dropped its second game at home. After three close losses, Cleveland (1-3) finally broke into the win column.

Spokane took the lead 68-65 when Kyle Rowley zipped a 4-yard touchdown pass to Raul Vijil with 8.2 seconds remaining. On the ensuing kickoff, Holmes caught the ball cleanly off the net and burst up the middle. He was barely touched as he raced into the end zone with 1.6 seconds left.

“I’ve never had this feeling where we pretty much had the game won and they return a kick with almost no time left,” linebacker Kevin McCullough said. “It was devastating, but we’re going to come back and learn from it.”

Holmes had returned two kicks for just 14 yards before breaking the game-winner.

“He actually came up to me and said, ‘I took one out of your book,’ said Vijil, an accomplished kick returner. “He made a great play, and they played to the end. That’s what you have to do in arena football.”

Spokane had one last chance when a penalty on the Gladiators was enforced after the kickoff. From Cleveland’s 23, Rowley floated a deep pass into the end zone for receiver Markee White, but the ball fell to the turf as White and a defensive back wrestled for position. Shock offensive coordinator Matt Sauk chased after the officials as they exited the field, protesting that there should have been pass interference.

“It was pretty wild, all the way down to the last play when we threw it up to Markee, thinking the flag should have been thrown, but they didn’t call anything,” said Shock receiver Huey Whittaker, who caught three second-half touchdown passes. “We have to live with it.”

Rowley tossed nine touchdown passes and Cleveland counterpart John Dutton had six. Both quarterbacks were intercepted twice and each team had a momentum-turning fumble. There were 18 penalties, including two infractions that erased Cleveland turnovers in the second half. Another penalty wiped out Spokane’s recovery of an on-side kick in the final minute.

“It seemed like every time we made a good play, there was a penalty,” Spokane coach Rob Keefe said. “You can’t do that. That’s just playing sound football.”

Spokane was probably fortunate to be down just 38-34 at half. Rowley was intercepted twice, the latter returned by Victor Williams for a touchdown late in the second quarter.

Cleveland made a couple of costly mistakes, too. Spokane pulled even at 14 when Davion Mitchell mishandled a kick off the netting. As he tried to secure the ball, he was blasted by the Shock’s Eddie Thompson and teammate James Todd, who signed earlier this week, pounced on the loose ball for a touchdown.

Defensive back Travis Williams was victimized on Dutton’s first three touchdown passes, but he picked off a Dutton pass in the end zone in the second quarter. Williams also picked off another Dutton pass in the end zone in the second half.

Cleveland led 28-27 with time dwindling in the second quarter. On third-and-goal at the Shock 2, Spokane conceded a Gladiators touchdown so it would have time to counter with a score of its own. It worked as Spokane scored on a Rowley-to-White 35-yard touchdown pass on the ensuing play from scrimmage, but that left 21.3 ticks on the clock.

Cleveland moved the ball to midfield and Matt Denny booted a 41-yard field goal on the final play of the half.

Spokane visits Arizona (2-2), which lost 62-61 to Tampa Bay, on Friday.

 

 



Jim Meehan
Jim Meehan joined The Spokesman-Review in 1990. Jim is currently a reporter for the Sports Desk and covers Gonzaga University basketball, Spokane Empire football, college volleyball and golf.

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