Wheelers put out Fire
By Steve Bittenbender/ FOR THE TIMES

LOUISVILLE, Ky. It wasnt pretty, but it was enough.

The Quad-City Steamwheelers doused the Louisville Fire offense in the second half, holding the hosts to only 55 yards and one offensive touchdown as the defending arenafootball2 champions won 36-27 Friday night before 10,122 people at Freedom Hall.

Quad-Cities (2-0) won despite being outgained 201-178 in offense.

Quarterback Tony Zimmerman accounted for four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing) on 13 of 24 passing for 185 yards, but it was the Steamwheelers defense that won the game.

The defense sacked Louisville quarterback Matt Pike five times and blocked a field goal resulting in a safety all in the second half. The Wheelers rolled off 22 straight points in a nine-minute span, taking a 36-21 lead midway through the fourth.

Ive been saying this all along, our front people are the strength of our football team, Wheelers coach Rich Ingold said.

Living up to Ingolds comments, it was a lineman that turned the game around for the Wheelers. But it happened on special teams.

Trailing 14-6 midway through the second quarter, T.J. Schneckloth, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound lineman, hustled downfield to recover Paul Schroeders 51-yard missed field goal at the Louisville 4. On the next play, Josh Fourdyce scored a touchdown. He and Zimmerman teamed up on a 2-point conversion pass to tie the game.

Schneckloth pounced on the ball after it bounced low off the net and squirted past two Louisville players. At first, he thought he might have gotten an early jump When I stood up, I could hear a pin drop in the arena, he said. I thought I was across the 5 (too early), but then I looked at the bench and they were going nuts.

For as many key plays Quad-Cities made, it also made several mistakes.

Zimmerman missed several open receivers deep. The Wheelers also committed an illegal-defense penalty on a Louisville fourth-and-goal from the Wheelers 2.

That penalty, in the second quarter, allowed the Fire to take a 14-6 lead.

The Wheelers also squandered a good opportunity midway in the first quarter.

After holding the Fire on downs at the Quad City 14 on the games first drive, the Wheelers marched down to the Fire 5. On first and goal, Zimmerman handed the ball to Ira Gooch on a sweep, but Delvecchio Walls stripped Gooch, who caught two touchdown passes in the second half, and Tony Esters recovered for Louisville at the 5.

Four plays after Goochs fumble, Pike, who completed only 18 of 38 passes for 220 yards, connected with Alfonzo Browning on a 12-yard pass to give Louisville a 7-0 lead.

Quad City responded with its own four-play, 45-yard drive. Zimmerman connected with Chris Anthony on four straight passes, the last being a 11-yard diving catch in the front corner of the end zone. But Paul Schroeder shanked the extra point wide left to keep the score 7-6.

Schroeder had another subpar game. The kicker missed two field goals, from 51 and 43 yards, and hit only 2 of 4 extra points. In addition, several of his kickoffs were short, and a Louisville player saved him from having a kick enter the stands.

Ingold, who had expressed concerns prior to the game, said he will review the situation.

Basically, we wanted to give him another chance, he said. Weve got to go back and evaluate and see what needs to be done.

Contact the sports desk at (563) 383-2285 or sports@qctimes.com.

The Louisville Fire have made improvements, but last night the Quad City Steamwheelers made the plays.

Quad City, the two-time-defending arenafootball2 champion, scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to defeat the Fire 36-27 before a crowd of 10,122 in Freedom Hall.

''We did show a good effort, and the defense played well,'' said Jeff Brohm, the Fire's first-year head coach. ''But offensively, we weren't able to take advantage of our opportunities.''

The Fire (0-2) got most of its chances in the first half, during which it dominated in plays (29-17), yards (146-92) and time of possession (17:40-12:20). But all that translated into a 14-14 tie.

Although Louisville never trailed through the first three quarters, it never again led after the first play of the fourth quarter.

Quad City's Frank Trentadue blocked his second field-goal attempt of the game on a 49-yard try by Mike Moser. When the ball rolled out of the end zone, the safety gave Quad City (2-0) a 22-21 lead, which it quickly extended.

Steamwheelers quarterback Tony Zimmerman hit Ira Gooch in the right corner of the end zone for a 26-yard touchdown. Trailing 29-21, Louisville's late-game offensive problems began to show.

Quarterback Matt Pike seemed to be scrambling on every pass attempt. All of Quad City's five sacks came in the fourth quarter. One of the most damaging happened when Cory Bern dropped Pike for an 8-yard loss that forced a third-and-long. Pike completed a pass to Charles Sheffield, but he fumbled while trying to stretch for more yards.

''We weren't able to protect real well,'' Brohm said. ''In the fourth quarter we weren't able to protect at all. It seemed like everything we tried, they were able to get through.''

Following the turnover, Zimmerman found Gooch open in the left corner of the end zone for a 10-yard score and a 36-21 lead with 6:53 left.

Just as it seemed the Fire had burned out, a two-play scoring drive pulled it within 36-27. Pike connected with Anthony Payton on a 23-yard corner route.

The Fire then kept its momentum going as Marvin Taylor recovered an onside kick with just over five minutes left. But needing another quick score, Louisville, which outgained the Steamwheelers 201 yards to 178, could not move the ball. The Fire's drive never moved into Quad City territory.

Pike again was scrambling on every play, once being called for intentional grounding, and was sacked inside the 1 by Trentadue before the Fire turned the ball over on downs.

''They brought (Trentadue) from playing linebacker to nose guard,'' Pike said. ''He was just a beast. He was in my face a lot.''

Louisville's defense played much better than it did in its season opening loss to Memphis. The Fire allowed 60 points a week earlier but for the most part kept Quad City in check.

The defense even scored when Delvecchio Walls scooped up a fumbled lateral pass and took it 10 yards untouched into the end zone. But the defense could not make up for lost chances.

Louisville's first possession stalled at the Quad City 13 as Pike threw four straight incompletions into the end zone.

A second quarter scoring chance was erased when Pee Wee Woods picked off Pike's fade pass to Sheffield in the end zone.

''Just like last week, when we got down in the red zone, we couldn't stick it in,'' said Pike, who finished with 220 yards passing and two touchdowns. ''We're just having problems scoring down there when the field gets shorter.''

Walls gave the Fire another shot at building a lead with less than 20 seconds left in the first half. He returned Paul Schroeder's missed field-goal attempt 32 yards to Quad City's 18. Pike threw an incomplete pass and scrambled for 5 yards to set up Moser's 28yard field-goal attempt on the final play of the half.

Moser's kick never stood a chance. Trentadue got a good jump on the right side of the line and blocked the kick.

''I thought we would score more than this,'' Brohm said. ''If you get in the 40s, you have a good chance to win. When you don't, it's tough.''