Shock burn Boise
Just call it the Raul Vijil show.
Or the Nygel Rogers, Rob Keefe and Alex Teems show.
All right, just call it what it was: domination.
Other than cooling off in the second quarter and allowing three of Boise’s four touchdowns, the Shock (8-4) were hot in a must-win game.
Vijil broke Spokane’s single-game touchdown reception record with six TDs and the secondary defense combined for six interceptions and held the Burn (4-7) scoreless in the second half as the Shock burned their division-rival 60-28 Saturday night in arenafootball2 action in front of a sold-out Arena crowd of 10,565.
The previous receiving record was held by receiver Antwone Savage and former receiver Charles Frederick, who both previously hauled in five touchdown passes in a single game for the Shock.
Vijil was happy with the record-setting performance, but the win meant more to him.
“If we didn’t get that win, the records don’t mean anything – but it feels good to get my name in the record books,” he said.
On this night, Vijil was the Shock’s go-to guy.
With Savage sidelined because of a nagging hamstring injury, Shock quarterback Andrico Hines connected with Vijil 13 times for 122 yards. The former Eastern Washington receiver didn’t play last week in the Shock’s loss to the Tri-Cities Fever because of an ankle injury that has been bothering him since the fourth week of the season.
“I’m not playing completely healthy,” Vijil said, “but that’s the game of football. I don’t know how many guys out there are 100 percent, so sometimes you just have to suck it up.
“Coming off a loss, a lot of guys didn’t feel good after that, and even though we’re in first place, we’ve realized that everyone is gunning for us … from now on we’re focused and hopefully we’ll head to Central Valley and get a win.”
They’ll need it.
The Shock have a half-game lead over Central Valley in the division standings after the Coyotes defeated the Fever Saturday 47-42. Spokane hits the road next Saturday to take on the Coyotes, then has a bye week the following Saturday before hosting the Fever on July 14, so there’s no more room for error.
“It was a big game for us, another conference game, we started off good and kind of slowed down, but we had a great second half – great team-play overall,” said Rogers, who returned both of his interceptions for touchdowns.
Teems and Keefe also had two picks each as the defense turned in an all-around dominating performance.
“I’ve never been involved in a game where we have all three guys with multiple picks,” Shock coach Adam Shackleford said. “A lot of that comes from the guys like Devon Parks, Katon Bethay, Marques Ledbetter, Anthony Brown and our lineman getting pressure – we had pressure on them all night.”
Hines had the kind of night he needed to bounce back from last week’s 8 for 33, 106-yard performance against the Fever. He finished 24 for 34 for 256 yards and six touchdowns.
“When we protect Andrico Hines, he’s an excellent quarterback,” Shackleford said. “(He was) everything I know he can be. Andrico has taken so much heat in this town and handled it like a professional. He’s booed before the game and he takes it all with a grain of salt and went out and threw six touchdowns.
“When we protect Andrico, he’s the best quarterback in this league – and he’ll be the first one to take it on his shoulders and take the heat.”