Island fever

The couple, the girl with her hair dyed orange and the boy sporting a dark blue ‘do, didn’t seem to mind. The front-row fan wearing a Shock No. 9 jersey and waving the flag of Puerto Rico didn’t seem to mind.

Nobody among the record 10,550 fans who jammed the Spokane Arena on Saturday night seemed to mind a bit when the Spokane Shock abandoned their trademark last-second heroics and simply outplayed Arkansas in every manner, rolling to a 48-30 arenafootball2 victory in the National Conference championship game.

Next stop: af2’s biggest prize, the ArenaCup, Saturday in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The top-ranked Shock (16-2) will face Green Bay (12-6), a 60-47 winner over Florida in the American Conference championship. Kickoff is at 3:30 PDT.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Shock coach Chris Siegfried, who came up on the losing end with Cape Fear in the 2002 American Conference championship game. “We were close before four years ago, but this has just been a sweet, sweet ride.

“We’re right where we dreamed about being just a few weeks ago. We didn’t necessarily dream about this at the beginning of the season, but about midway through the season we started thinking we had a shot.”

Shock contributions were widespread. Charles Frederick, who tormented Arkansas with five touchdown receptions in a 46-23 Shock win last month, was at it again with two more TD catches and a 43-yard kick return that set up Spokane’s first score. Even bigger on this night was the defense, which forced two game-changing turnovers, one of which was an interception by Jesse Hendrix, who returned it 37 yards for a touchdown.

Spokane started to pull away when Raul Vijil dashed through a crease in the left side of the Twisters’ defensive line for a 6-yard TD run and a 34-23 lead with 4:32 left in the third quarter.

On Arkansas’ next play from scrimmage, Kevin Beard punched the ball loose from receiver Pierre Thomas and into the arms of Spokane’s Isaiah Trufant.

“Arkansas did a good job stopping our offense a couple of times,” Beard said, “but championship teams always have a good defense. We have a great offense and a great defense and we’re on our way to Puerto Rico.”

Spokane capitalized on the turnover with three straight short-yardage completions to Hendrix, drawing Arkansas’ defense closer to the line of scrimmage and opening up Hendrix to blow past a defensive back for a 31-yard TD reception.

“It was definitely set up,” said Hendrix, who celebrated his first af2 interception and TD reception. “I told coach they were getting closer and closer. He called it and it worked.”

Just about everything Spokane did seemed to work in the second half. Perhaps the loudest ovation of the game came when Arkansas quarterback Walter Church was sacked and fumbled late in the third quarter. Center Vernon Robiskie picked up the ball, took one step forward and was drilled under the chin by 310-pound Moa Peaua, sending Robiskie’s helmet flying.

A few minutes later Vijil scored on a 3-yard touchdown run to hike Spokane’s lead to 48-23. From there, the only moments of concern came when Trufant crashed into the dasherboards defending a pass in the end zone. Trufant stayed on the ground for several minutes before a stretcher was brought onto the field. The crowd chanted his name when Trufant got to his feet and left the field under his own power.

Trufant said later he tweaked his back, but expects to play next week.

The Shock never trailed, but every time it appeared they were going to build a comfortable lead in the first half Arkansas would respond with a key play.

Spokane scored on its first three possessions, the last two on fourth-down conversions when Siegfried decided against attempting field goals. Both scores came on Kyle Rowley-to-Frederick connections.

The latter TD put Spokane in front 20-10, but Arkansas came back with a three-play scoring drive. Spokane’s offense stalled for the first time, but Hendrix eased the pain in a big way with his interception and touchdown return.

“I saw on film they liked to do out-and-ups a lot,” said Hendrix, a former Eastern Washington Eagle. “I tried to bait the quarterback to make it look like the guy was open. Then I saw that throw, broke on it, caught it and I did what I do.”

Spokane again led by double digits, 27-16, but the Twisters closed within 27-23 at the half when Church floated an 8-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Williams with 38 seconds left. The Shock, who burned their three timeouts in the first 21 minutes, saw a promising possession go backward when they were hit by consecutive penalties, their eighth and ninth of the half, not counting a couple that were declined by the Twisters.

“Hats off to Arkansas,” Siegfried said. “I thought they played a better first half than we did, but we came out in the second half and turned it on.”

Rowley finished with 223 yards passing and three touchdowns. Frederick had eight catches for 81 yards. Church was limited to 213 yards passing.

“We did it, we got one more done,” Rowley said. “Now we’ve got one more to do.”