The Mahoning Valley Thunder finally won the paying crowd a free crunchy taco by scoring 50 points.  However, the Thunders record continued to make its own run for the border with another nerveracking loss Friday night at The Covelli Centre.  The Manchester Wolves know they won one they didn’t deserve to win, finishing ahead of Mahoning Valley on the scoreboard, 59-53.

The game started out all Thunder as quarterback Brad Roach was impressive early on.  The Thunder hurried out to a 20-0 lead and really looked like a well-oiled machine in doing so.    Manchester outscored Mahoning Valley 59-33 the rest of the game.

In a weird fourth quarter, where both teams scored 37 points, turnovers proved to do the Thunder in yet again.  Tied 41-41, Roach found Mr. Thunder, Quorey Payne on a 15-yard TD to give the Thunder a 47-41 lead.  On the extra point, the snap went over the holder Jermaine Moye’s head and was caught by kicker Nathan Palkovic.  Palkovic found lineman Kenny Shayne who caught the ball on about the five but came up a half-yard short of getting the two-points. 

The Wolves answered quickly as Mike Potts found Steve Savoy who made a circus catch for a 28-yard TD.  The Wolves kicked the extra point to take a 48-47 lead with less than a minute left in the game.  Quorey Payne returned the ensuing kickoff 53 yards to put Mahoning Valley back on top.  The two-point conversion failed and the Thunder held a 53-48 lead with :45 left in the game.

Mahoning Valley then tried something people were confused about, an onside kick.  Coach MacKeown told me after the game, “In arena football, you want to have the ball last, I figured if we got the kickoff, we could run out the clock.  If the kick failed, we would get the ball back with enough time to mount a drive and score.  People were screaming at me from the audience, calling me an idiot, but with the speed of the game and scoring happening pretty frequently, you always want to have the ball for the winning drive.”

Manchester recovered the onside kick attempt and scored when Potts jogged around the right side for six, and a two-point conversion made it 56-53. 

The kickoff hit a bar and the screen before Quorey Payne could field it cleanly.  He struggled to get the ball out of the end zone and was tackled on the one.  After a seven-yard completion, Roach fumbled the snap from center and Manchester recovered.  Mahoning Valley’s defense, which played well most of the night, forced Manchester to kick a 35-yard field goal.  The Thunder got the ball back with 10.5 seconds left.

CJ Brewer caught a Roach pass to get the ball near midfield with :03 left in the game.  On the last play, Roach lobbed a pass into the end zone, but it was knocked away and the Thunder came out a day late and a dollar short losing 59-53.

Mike Potts led the Wolves offense on 32-47 for 273 yards with 5 TD’s and 4 INT’s.  Of the 4 interceptions Potts threw, Mahoning Valley’s Brandon Taylor collected a franchise record three picks for the Thunder.  Manchester receiver Steve Savoy caught 12 balls for 120 yards and 4 TD’s.

Brad Roach was 16-32 with four interceptions.  Roach played much better than last week saying, “I am still learning the speed of arena football, everything is happening fast on the field.  I feel more comfortable and like this team, we can win once we eliminate turnovers and mistakes.”  Roach was given a vote of confidence by Coach MacKeown, “Brad is only in his second week, and really his first to prepare.  He is learning fast and if this were the eighth week of a new season, people would be Brad Roach fanatics, he is going to be great.”

Next week, Goliath returns to Youngstown as the 9-2 Wilkes Barre team revisits The Covelli Centre.  Coach MacKeown was adamant that this loss and last weeks were very different, but both still losses.  “I won’t rest until we win.  It’s going to be a tough week against Wilkes Barre, but if we play like we did most of tonight, we have a chance.”