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NORTHWEST
FOOTBALL LEAGUE |
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I'll try to get the first half story and pictures, and individual defensive stats, done this week.
The Cinderella story King County Jaguars hosted the powerhouse Eastside Hawks in grudge match that would ultimately determine the NWFL regular season champion and home field throughout the playoffs.
The game pitted the league's 2nd and 3rd ranked offenses against one another, but it was a defenses that dominated the game. The game opened with the teams exchanging 3 and out possessions. The Hawks did manage to gain 38 yards and 2 first downs on their 2nd drive but eventually had to punt again. The Jaguar offense was faring no better against the talented Hawk defense as they couldn't even cross midfield before being forced to punt on the 1st play of the 2nd quarter. The Hawk returner misjudged the ball and it bounced through his grasp and towards the endzone. He caught up to it deep in the endzone but another awkward bounce left him grabbing at air. A Jaguar coverage man had a clear shot in the endzone but was also the victim of a bad bounce. Finally the other Hawks returner got enough of the ball to knock it out the back of the endzone. After a lengthy officials conference - TOUCHDOWN JAGUARS! The Hawks protested and another officials conference resulted in the call being changed to a safety and the Jaguars led 2-0.
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| Sidney Orange slips through the grasp of Dion Alexander to score from 5 yards out. |
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| Orange powers in for the 2 point conversion to tie the score |
The Hawks opened the 2nd half by kicking off from the 20 due to pesonal fould on the last play of the first half. Craig Howley boomed a kick down to the Jaguar 10 and Hakeem McCallister returned it out to the 28. On the Jags 2nd play from scrimmage the Jags botched a handoff and the ball bounced right to Hawk CB Joel Robnett. He returned the fumble down to the 20 before being caught by Leo Dickerson. Westendorf hit Jakoba Square for 17 yards and then Sidney Orange finished the short drive by sweeping around the right end from 5 yards out. Orange powered over left tackle for the 2 point conversion to tie the score at 8 with 11:30 left in the 3rd quarter. (5 plays, 20 yards).
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| DE Jackie Triplett pressures Westendorf into a fumble deep in Hawk territory. |
The game was a defensive battle for the next 21 minutes with the teams punting a combined 7 times during that span. With just over 7:00 left in the game the Hawks took possession at their own 20 after a Jaguar punt. On first down Westendorf hit Mike Rigell for 13 yards and a first down but the drive stalled from there. With 5:00 left in the game and the score still tied at 8-8, the Hawks were faced a 3rd and 14. Westendorf dropped back to pass and was corraled by DE Jackie Triplett. Westendorf tried to throw the ball away to avoid the sack. He was spun around by Triplett just as he released the ball so his pass went backwards - LIVE BALL! There was a mad scramble for the ball but it ended up in the hands of Jaguar safety Denetric Williams at the Hawk 6 yard line. Two plays later Delano Edgecomb tried to go off left tackle but saw too many white jerseys so he cut back towards the center of the field and into the endzone. Rick Black's PAT put the Jags up 15-8 with under 4:00 to play.
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| Delano Edgecomb cut back under the pursuit at the 10, powered through the tackle attempt of 3 Hawks at the 5, and then went the last 5 yards untouched. | ||||||
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| Sidney Orange explodes into the Jaguar secondary for 10 yards and a Hawks first down.. |
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| Mike Rigell celebrates his 36 yard game-tying catch and run by somersaulting into the endzone. |
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Jimmy McCollum gained 36 yards on
this bomb before getting pushed out of bounds by Carlos Clark.
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Andre Zahnjko's kick-off sailed 7 yards deep into the endzone forcing the Hawk returner to settle for a touchback. Two runs by Sidney Orange moved the ball out to the 33. Then Westendorf went over the top down the left sideline to a streaking Jimmy McCollum for a 36 yard gain before CB Carlos Clark and safety Milton Myers knocked him out at the Jaguar 36. On the next play Westendorf found WR Mike Rigell open across the middle. Rigell outraced the defense to the sideline and then cut back towards the middle of the field at the 20 and somersaulted into the endzone. Howley's PAT again tied the game at 15 with 2:23 remaining.
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| Leo Dickerson throws a frozen rope on the dead run while avoiding the Hawk pass rush. |
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| Rick Black nails the game winning field goal with :04 remaining. |
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Hakeem McCallister was 20 yards away
from any Hawk defender on his 61 yard catch.
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Milton Myers took Howley's booming kickoff 5 yards deep in his endzone and then paused momentarily in an attempt to lure the coverage to sleep. Once he took off he had to start dodging Hawks inside the 5 yard line. He made it as far as the 19 before getting run down from behind by Jakoba Square. Malachi DeWalt bounced off a few tacklers on first down but they set him up for a big hit for no gain by safety Julian Williams. On 2nd down Dickerson rolled right to avoid pressure and found Hakeem McCallister running WIDE open behind the Hawk defense. Dickerson threw a dart to McCallister who was finally brought down at the Hawk 20 yard line. With 1:19 to play, the Jags ran Malachi DeWalt up the gut for 10 yards. One more run by DeWalt lost a yard but burned more time off the clock. With :08 left the Jags used their final timeout and brought 2002 AFA All-American kicker Rick Black onto the field for a 31 yard field goal. With a perfect hold by TE Landon Bishop, Black split the uprights to give the Jags an 18-15 lead with :04 left. A few Jaguar players enthusiastically stormed the field drawing a 15 yard penalty.
Miscellaneous comments
Is Leo Dickerson a big game quarterback? Everyone knows that he is unequaled
as a scrambler, but he put up 250 yards and a 106 QB rating againt what
may be the league's most talented defense! The Jags will be tough to stop
if he plays anywhere close to this in the playoffs.
The Jags held the
talented Hawks passing game to 182 yards with 2nd and 3rd string cornerbacks.
Shutdown corner Cedric Mars broke his wrist last week against the Ravens,
and Anthony Gayns has been hobbled by a hamstring strain for a couple
of weeks.
Kudos to the Hawk defense for holding the league's two leading rushers to a combined 42 yards on 19 carries. The Thunder and Lightning dynamic duo had been averaging a combined 199 yards per game (on 24 carries).
Has any team ever had a more talented RB trio than the Hawks Sidney Orange, Andre Edwards and Mike Harris? I wish there was a way to get each of these guys a 100+ carries a year.
Rushing: attempts-yards-TDs
(long)
Jaguars: Leo
Dickerson 5-34 (14), Malachi DeWalt 13-34 (10), Delano Edgecomb 6-8-1
(6), Carlos Clark 1-4
Hawks:
Sidney Orange 14-72-1(18), Andre
Edwards 13-35 (8), Lance Westendorf 2-10 (9)
Passing: completions-attempts-interceptions-yards-TDs
Jaguars: Leo
Dickerson 11-22-0-248-1
(106 QB rating)
Hawks:
Lance Westendorf
13-30-1-182-1, Brad Collins 0-1-1-0-0
Receiving:
catches-yards-TDs (long)
Jaguars: Milton
Myers 3-75-1 (50), Carlos Clark 3-62 (38), Hakeem McCallister 2-96 (61),
Delano Edgecomb 2-13, Matt Steel 1-2
Hawks:
Derrick Williams 6-58 (18), Mike
Rigell 3-55-1 (36), Jimmy McCollum 1-36, Jakoba Square 1-17, Sidney Orange
1-14, Mitch Dillard 1-4
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Kick returns:
#-yards-TDs (long) |
Punting:
#-yards avg/net avg (long) inside 20-touchbacks Jaguars: Andre Zahnjko 7-300 42.9/38.3 (70) 0-1 Hawks: 5-130 26.0/24.4 0-0 Interceptions #-yards-TDs (long) Jaguars: Milton Myers 2-35 (35) Hawks: none |
FR-Fumbles Recovered, I-Passes Intercepted, D-Passes Defensed, B-blocked kicks, TD-touchdown***
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