Showtime
NBC Sports came over to the Sharks to film a short documentary on the team and on quarterback Karen Mulligan. It would be a 2-part series that they would show on their website. The game they picked to send their filming crew to could not have been better.
The Sharks were hosting the D.C. Divas on June 7, 2008. It was a very hot day in Brooklyn with the temperature in the 90's. The Sharks had never beaten the Divas up until that day, going 0-2 in 2007. Though the games were close New York came up on the short end of the stick twice.
The Sharks offense was spotty in the first half. Sometimes Mulligan was giving NBC highlight reel video with her passing game, but New York turnovers kept killing drives. On the Sharks first drive they started from their own 30-yard line and drove all the way down to the D.C. 1-yard line. But a botched pitchout turned the ball over to the visitors.
Throughout the whole game, the Sharks defense was in fine fashion as they consistently stopped any D.C. drive. After the turnover on the pitchout, the Sharks defense got the ball back as defensive back Toni Salvatore intercepted Divas' quarterback Allyson Hamlim's pass and returned the ball to the D.C. 9-yard line. From there Mulligan connected with Brooke McKinney for the score, giving New York the lead near the end of the first quarter. The extra point attempt was no good, but the score was Sharks 6-Divas 0.
In the second quarter, the Sharks' defense kept D.C. out of the endzone. A highlight was a big stop of the Divas' at the New York 4-yard line on fourth down. While the defense came up big, the offense did not. On the next play from scrimmage, Mulligan dropped back to pass from her own endzone and underthrew her pass. It was picked off by Latisha Perry-Guinn who ran it back for a touchdown. D.C. converted the 2-point conversion and now was in the lead 8-6.
The Divas' defense was playing well too. They were shutting down the Sharks running game and were soon rushing Mulligan every chance they got. As the half was coming to an end, Mulligan was sacked and layed on the ground for a minute. She was able to walk off the field but the rest of the half was completed with Adrienne Smith as quarterback.
In the second half, Mulligan was back at the helm of the Sharks' offense but it did not look good at first. She fumbled the football to the Divas at the New York 42-yard line. The Divas again marched the ball down the field, but the Sharks defense put up a stone wall when it needed to. D.C. got the ball down to the New York 4-yard line before hitting running back Rachelle Pecovsky-Bentley with a 4-yard loss. An incomplete pass on fourth down followed and the defense held.
On the Divas very next possession they again moved the ball all the way down to the Sharks' 1-yard line. It was inconceivable to think that New York could deny D.C. for a third time with the ball less than 10 yards away from paydirt, but the Sharks defense did it again. The defensive line broke through and tackled Claudia Hogan behind the line of scrimmage for a loss but before she went down, she fumbled the football and New York recovered.
There was only 4 minutes left in the game when the Sharks offense took over the ball at their own 46-yard line. The offense had been sputtering for most of the second half as Mulligan was bothered by the Divas rushing the quarterback. But with the pressure on, Mulligan completed 3 passes to Lisa Doran to move the ball down to the Divas' 24-yard line. After 2 incomplete passes, it was now fourth down and 1 yard to go for a first down. With NBC filming, you had to wonder if they were going to have a Cinderella finish or another tough loss for New York.
Mulligan lined up in shotgun, but as soon as she got the ball she ran to her left and just got the 1 yard necessary to move the chains. It was now first down on the Divas' 23-yard line but now there was less than 2 minutes left in the game. Mulligan then hit McKinney in the middle of the field with 2 defenders on her for an 11-yard gain. On the next play, the Sharks hit paydirt as Doran caught a Mulligan pass at the 5-yard line and fought off 2 defenders for the go ahead score.
The Sharks went for the 2-point conversion and were successful as Mulligan rolled out to her right and hit Anabele Rodriguez for 2 points. This gave the Sharks for good by the score of 14-8.
It was a very exciting game and one that seemed too good to be true for the NBC film crew. Not only was it an exciting come from behind victory for the home team with less than 2 minutes left against a division rival, but the highlighted person in the feature was injured, taken off the field but then comes back to throw the winning score. It had unbelievable Hollywood script written all over it, yet it did happen.
For more details on the game, visit the Sharks' gameday write-up.
Next week at #3, Frantic Finish.
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