Furious rally in Cincinnati falls short in 58-50 loss

                Last Saturday, the Miami Valley Silverbacks (1-4) ended a run of nearly two years of losing.  This Saturday night, despite a 58-50 loss to the Cincinnati Commandos (5-0) at the Cincinnati Gardens, the Silverbacks went about proving to themselves they are good enough to win several more.

                “I think we’ll win out,” said quarterback Kyenes Mincy, who threw four second-half touchdowns and ran for another during a frenzied comeback.   “We know now we have the confidence and drive to play with the best in the league.”

                That kind of attitude was the furthest thought in the minds of any of the Silverbacks at halftime, when a defensive switch by the Commandos helped Cincinnati to a 32-6 lead.

                “Based on the last few games of watching film, they were playing cover-two invert almost every time,” said Silverbacks head coach Brian Wells.  “When it came time for us to start playing the first half, they weren’t playing cover-two.  They were giving us a cover-three look.  All the plays we had didn’t work.”

                While a confused Mincy completed just three passes and Miami Valley gained only 27 yards in the first half, Cincinnati’s Ben Mauk picked apart the Silverbacks, going 10-for-12 for 61 yards and four touchdowns in the first half.

                A few halftime adjustments and a 50-yard kick return for a touchdown by Adell Givens to open the second half changed things, however.

                “That was a big momentum booster because I was dry with my head down,” Mincy said.

                Givens’ return, in which he twice slipped out of tackles to take the ball the length of the field, started a third quarter in which the Silverbacks were finally able to stay step-for-step with the Commandos, but still found themselves down, 50-26, after Dominick Goodman ran in a one-yard touchdown run on the final play of the quarter.

                A lucky bounce in the fourth quarter helped Miami Valley finally make up some ground. 

Aric Evans became the fourth different receiver to catch a touchdown pass from Mincy five minutes in, managing to hang for a juggling, 19-yard catch that made the score 50-34 after a two-point pass to Daniel Stover.

The Commandos were flagged for an illegal block on the kickoff that followed, pinning them at their own 1, and a fumbled handoff bounced over the wall in the end zone two plays later to make it 50-36.

                “That was a huge point to say we can really win this,” Wells said.

                That belief grew even more after Mincy found Stover for a 4-yard touchdown and Evans for a two-point pass that made it 50-44 with 1:48 remaining.

                Cincinnati responded when Robert Redd made one move to streak 34 yards downfield for his fourth touchdown catch of the game just before the one minute warning, with Greg Moore’s two-point run making it 58-44. 

                Mincy kept Miami Valley’s hopes alive by escaping pressure and running 24 yards through the Cincinnati defense with 40 seconds remaining to get the Silverbacks back to within eight points, 58-50.

“It was a designed roll out,” Mincy said.  “I didn’t see anything open and I kept it.  (Cincinnati linebacker Clayton) Mullins has put a few quarterbacks over the wall, so I knew if I gave him a hard move, he’d bite.”

                What followed was a wild final 40 seconds that saw the Silverbacks comeback hopes rise and fall with seemingly every play.

                Will White recovered an onside kick for the Silverbacks, but was ruled have touched the ball before it went 10 yards, sending head coach Brian Wells into a rage.

“The guy recovered it at the 12 yard line.  How they could say he didn’t say he didn’t recover it past the 10 is beyond me,” said Wells, who got flagged for two penalties while arguing with the officials about the call. 

“We had such big momentum and we lost it.  I can’t believe they took it out of our hands like that.  I’ll look at it on film and I’ll issue an apology if I’m wrong.”

                With the Silverbacks still holding time outs, the Commandos elected to pass on two of their next three plays, with Mauk’s third-down pass being picked off by Chris Stanford in the end zone with 17 seconds remaining.

                Mincy’s next pass deflected off one of his own lineman, however, and was intercepted at the 15 yard line, ending Miami Valley’s final drive.           

“I told them they could blame me for the loss,” Mincy said.  “I saw Moss wide open on a scat.  It was tipped and Mullins picked it.”

Mincy was far more to credit for the Silverbacks comeback, finishing the game by completing 10 of 24 passes for 102 yards and five touchdowns after his three-for-11 start.  Four different receivers caught touchdowns, with Melvin Bryant leading the corps with five catches for 47 yards and Daniel Stover scoring on both his catches, which totaled 33 yards.  In addition to Evans’ fourth-quarter touchdown, Givens scored the Silverbacks only touchdown of the first half on a 12-yard reception.

Mauk finished 14-of-18 for 148 yards with seven touchdowns and one interception for the Commandos, also rushing for one touchdown.  Robert Redd caught four touchdown passes while Brandon Boehm had two and Goodman one.  All three had four receptions in the game, with Boehm leading in yards with 61.

The Commandos also ran for 96 yards on 18 carries, utilizing seven different ballcarriers.

Still, coming within one possession of a Commandos team that had won every other game by at least 22 points, including a 53-26 season-opening win against them, brought a lot of confidence to the Silverbacks outlook for the second half of this season.

“I know one thing,” Wells said.  “We’re got a good group of guys.  We’ve got a good team that rallies around each other and the coaching staff, and we’ll make a push for the playoffs.  At 1-4, it’s hard to fathom that, but we’ll do it.”

New quarterbacks took center stage Saturday night at the Odeum Sports Complex in Villa Park, Ill. outside of Chicago, with Keynes Mincy leading the Miami Valley Silverbacks past Will Ducey’s Chicago Cardinals, 46-29, to end Miami Valley’s 17-game losing streak dating back to May 2, 2008. Even though none of the players on the field Saturday night were on the Silverbacks even as far back as last year, Mincy said ending the losing streak takes a burden off the team.

“I’d like to thank God for everything,” said Mincy.  “It feels good to get something in that win column, because we’ve been struggling for a long time.”

Mincy, who was Miami Valley’s second-leading receiver with 10 catches for 119 yards and three touchdowns in their first three games this season, accounted for seven touchdowns, five passing and two rushing, in his first game as a quarterback.

Mincy completed eight of 16 passes for 155 yards and one interception, also rushing eight times for 77 yards.

Chicago, meanwhile, was forced to take the field without starter Ron Ricciardi, who was in the hospital due to an infected cyst that would not respond to antibiotic treatment.  Instead, Will Ducey made his first appearance of the year for the Cardinals on less than 24-hours notice.

“It hurt a lot,” said Chicago head coach John Burns.  “A lot of the dropped passes were because of the different styles.  Ron is more of a touch passer.  Ducey is more of a Favre cannon-type guy.  It hurt the receivers.”

Ducey completed nine of 25 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.

Both quarterbacks took a series to warm up, with Mincy being sacked on his first two snaps, including a fumble the Cardinals recovered after the second, and Ducey unable to move Chicago any closer before the Cardinals’ Julie Harshbarger missed a 27-yard field goal.

Mincy’s next pass resulted in a 43-yard touchdown to Daniel Stover, the start of a deadly combination that resulted in four catches, all for touchdowns, and 105 receiving yards.

“We knew they couldn’t cover Stover one-on-one,” said Miami Valley head coach Brian Wells.  “We tried to isolate their coverage on Stover and that opened up other things.  If everybody was covered, Keynes is still dangerous with the ball in his hands.”

Chicago immediately answered with a 36-yard touchdown pass from Ducey to Brandon Wogoman, but the Silverbacks held Chicago scoreless the rest of the half while Mincy burned the Cardinals on the ground in the second quarter after a 6-yard Mincy-to-Stover connection put Miami Valley up 12-6 to end the first quarter.

Mincy converted a third-and-seven from the Miami Valley seven with an eight-yard run, then turned a third-and-14 from his own 22 into a touchdown with runs of 11 yards on third down and 17 yards on fourth down.

Following an interception by Chris Stanford, Mincy ran 19 yards for a touchdown to extend Miami Valley’s lead to 24-6 by halftime.

“We went in at halftime and made some adjustments,” Burns said.  “We pulled to within 10 points, but the defense couldn’t convert those third downs.  They couldn’t get off the field.  We would get them in third and long and the QB would have a long run.  That broke our back.”

The Cardinals were twice able to pull to within 10 points in the third quarter, first after a 6-yard touchdown by Phil Taylor followed by a Wogoman 2-point conversion run on the opening drive of the quarter, and later after a 34-yard touchdown from Ducey to Alex Nunez made the score 32-22 late in the third quarter.

“My thought was, here we go,” said Wells.  “We still had a whole quarter to play.  We had to stay focused on finishing out.”

The Miami Valley defense held on two opportunities by the Cardinals to close to within single digits, including one after a blocked field goal gave Chicago possession at the Silverbacks’ 9-yard line.

Stover’s fourth touchdown of the game, a 26-yard catch on third-and-nine, gave the momentum back to Miami Valley.

Melvin Bryant caught Mincy’s final touchdown, a 23-yard play to convert another third-and-nine with 46 seconds left and Chicago scored the game’s final touchdown on a 20-yard pass from Ducey to Shawn McKeown with 29 seconds remaining.

Harshbarger closed out the scoring with an extra point, making her the second female to score in a CIFL game this season.

“She did excellent,” Burns said.  “On a couple attempts she had there were bad snaps and penetration.  When the hold was there and we blocked, she put it right through the middle.”

Still, Burns was left knowing his team has work to do to turn around its 0-3 start. “We’ll have Ron (Ricciardi) back next week,” Burns said.  “It’s there.  We’ve just got to put it together.”

For the first time in a long time, those aren’t feelings the Silverbacks have to deal with.

“It’s almost been two years since this team has had a win and nobody wants to be on a losing team,” Wells said. “I don’t think this was a fluke win.  We’re going to be building on this.”

The Silverbacks (1-3) will visit the Cincinnati Commandos on Saturday while the Cardinals (0-3) will travel to Fort Wayne.

The signs leading up to the Miami Valley’s Saturday night contest in Fort Wayne seemed to point to the Silverbacks gaining their first win of the 2010 season.  Instead the Silverbacks (0-3) were detoured in their quest to end their losing streak which now sits at 17 games, falling 44-28 to the FireHawks (1-1) at Fort Wayne’s Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

“I really thought with the game plan in place and players we chose to dress, this was our chance to get the monkey off our back for the Silverbacks,” said head coach Brian Wells.

While the Silverbacks lost by just six points in Wisconsin last week, the FireHawks were coming off a 55-27 loss to the Cincinnati Commandos that included five first-half interceptions.

The FireHawks had a new quarterback this week in Kota Colors, and he proved to be a vast improvement, completing 17-of-30 passes for 200 yards and seven touchdowns with just one interception.

“The QB they brought in did a good job.  He made decent decisions,” Wells said.  “Their wide receivers are probably the best, with the Commandos, that we’ll face.  Justin Wynn is unbelievable.  Now they’ve got somebody who can get the ball to them.”

Wynn caught seven passes for 114 yards and four touchdowns, including a 31-yard score on the first play of the game that gave Fort Wayne a lead it would not relinquish.

Colors and Wynn hooked up again on a 4-yard touchdown to put Fort Wayne ahead, 14-0, before Shaun Kirby found Kyenes Mincy for a 26-yard touchdown on a one-play drive.

Brandon Walker-Roby hauled in the first of two touchdowns on the final play of the first quarter to push the FireHawks lead back to 20-6. 

Another Colors-to-Wynn touchdown connection extended that lead to 26-6 before Derrick Moss scored from a yard out, with Adell Givens’ two-point conversion run putting the score at 26-14 at halftime.

The Silverbacks had several chances to get the lead under 12 points in the second half, but costly interceptions prevented them from doing so until it was too late.

“We’ve got to hit the underneath routes and take what they’re giving us,” Wells said.  “Kirby’s got to play better.”

Kirby completed 10-of-28 passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns, but also had three interceptions, all in the second half.  Daniel Stover caught four passes for 44 yards while Mincy had three catches for 41 yards and both touchdown grabs. 

Defensive back Chris Stanford led the defense with 11 tackles while linebacker Will White followed with five tackles, three for a loss, with two sacks and a fumble recovery.  Austin Goss picked off his second pass of the year. 

“Considering the defense got put in some bad spots, I’m not disappointed in their play,” Wells said.

Miami Valley’s opening possession of the second half ended when Paul Carter picked off a Kirby pass at the goal line, leading to a 45-yard strike from Colors to Wynn.

Kirby connected with Mincy on a 1-yard touchdown pass that brought the Silverbacks back to within 12, 32-20, but Miami Valley missed on two opportunities to get any closer.

One play after the defense forced Fort Wayne to turn the ball over on downs, Kirby was again picked off at the goal line, this time by Terry Moore.

Derrick Crawford recovered a fumble at the Silverbacks’ 1-yard line, but Miami Valley could pick up just one first down before having to try a long field goal that was missed.

Colors found Walker-Roby for a 10-yard touchdown that extended the Fort Wayne lead to 38-20 with under eight minutes remaining. 

The Silverbacks finally pulled closer than 12 points when Adell Givens capped a 4:40 drive with a 1-yard score and Kirby found Austin Goss for a 2-point conversion to make it 38-28 with 2:45 remaining in the game.

Colors hit Jermaine Woolfolk on a 29-yard touchdown on a fourth-down pass, however, making it 44-28 with 39 seconds left.

Although the loss leaves the Silverbacks as one of two winless teams left in the CIFL, Wells said he feels his team is on the right track.

“We need to keep working hard and making adjustments with player personnel,” Wells said.  “The system is okay.  It’s a new offense.  The play calls are there, we just need to execute them.”

With a game next week at the Chicago Cardinals (0-2), the league’s other winless team, Wells has a simple plan for the week ahead.

“We’ll keep working hard to get better and hopefully the wins will come.”