Things may heat up for Shock
It’s no secret that there’s no love lost between the Boise Burn and the Spokane Shock.
Tonight’s Western division matchup between the Shock (7-4) and the Burn (4-6) will undoubtedly be an intense battle between two teams vying for a playoff spot.
“I think anytime you have Northwest teams meeting, it’s definitely going to be really intense, especially with what happened last time we played (Boise),” defensive back Rob Keefe said. “It’s going to be intense. They’ve lost a lot since then and they’re probably trying to get back on track, and so are we with our game that we had last Saturday.”
When the teams met May 19, the Shock put together one of their best games of the season to defeat the Burn 62-44. A fight broke out on the field and Spokane defensive back Nygel Rogers received a one-game suspension. Boise’s Tyler Bruhn and Dustin Rykert were all suspended for one game as well and the Burn’s Chris Bruhn received a two-game suspension for leaving the bench.
Keefe was originally suspended but won his appeal to the arenafootball2 league office, which confirmed Keefe never threw a punch in the scrap.
Shock quarterback Andrico Hines connected 28 of 33 passes for 254 yards and six touchdowns in the May 19 win, but he struggled last Saturday in the Shock’s 39-34 loss to the Tri-Cities Fever, which shrunk their divisional lead over the Fever to half-game.
Shock coach Adam Shackleford opened up the position after the game last week and announced Thursday that Hines will remain the starting quarterback over backup Justin Rummell.
“The thing about it is we are looking forward to Boise now,” Shackleford said. “But after the game last week, I’ve been talking to the guys about the fact that we are still a first-place team. At the end of the season, the team with the best record moves on, and we’re still that team right now.
“I think we went in, took the game for granted, and got knocked off our pedestal a little, and now it’s time to go out and do the things that have gotten us in first place to begin with.”
The Burn are led by quarterback Bart Hendricks, who is averaging 220.7 passing yards a game.