Brooklyn, New York, April 17, 2010
This week's game would tell if the Sharks are back as one of the top flight teams in women's football. They were hosting the IWFL Eastern Conference Champion D.C. Divas in the Sharks' historic 12th season opener. A competitive battle would prove the point and a win would put an exclamation on it. The New York Sharks (2-0) had easily dispatched the inexperienced Philadelphia Firebirds that week before but the D.C. Divas (1-1) just as easily handled the Baltimore Nighthawks too. And prior to last week, the Nighthawks demolished the Firebirds, so not much could be gleamed on how well New York will do against the visitors.
The day started off as most typical Shark openers go, with rain. But this home opener would be a first for under the lights and by the time kick-off came around the rain had stopped. Still it was quite chilly with the temperatures in the low 50's, but by the end of the game it got much colder.
The game started with the D.C. Divas kicking off the football, but they quickly got it back. The kick was short and bounced just in front of Lauren Pringle as she ran up to try and field the football. The ball took a sharp bounce away from Pringle and in front of her. Before she could catch up with the ball, D.C. recovered the kick. This gave the Divas excellent field position to start the game at the Sharks' 33-yard line.
Last week the Sharks defense completely shut down Philadelphia and they proved to be in fine form this week too as they held the Divas to only 2 yards on 3 plays. With the ball on the New York 31-yard line, D.C. went for it on fourth down but newcomer Ebony Jones broke through the line and sacked the D.C. quarterback Kathryn Hemlock.
New York's offensive game plan was revealed quite early and that was pass. Quarterback Karen Mulligan wasted no time in going to the air and was able to move the team down to the Divas 35-yard line before the drive stalled. The Sharks might have proceeded farther but twice Mulligan's passes were dropped by New York receivers. It was a theme that repeated itself with alarming frequency throughout the evening.
D.C.'s game plan was exactly the opposite. They eschewed the pass and went to their smash-mouth running game. Nothing too fancy, just give the ball to their running back and it is up to you to try and stop her. Hemlock kept handing the ball to Tiffany Matthews, Okiima Pickett, and Kenyetta Grigsby. Each time they would blast their way through for 3 to 9 yards at a time. But once they got into the red zone, D.C. went play- action pass and Hemlock threw a 13 yard pass to Tara Stephenson in the endzone. It was a very nice 11 play drive by D.C. New York was going to have to come up with an answer to stop this punishing running attack or it was going to be a long evening.
Again on the kick-off, New York had trouble fielding the ball but they kept possession of it. They started their first drive from their own 17-yard line. The first play was a nifty run by Kathy Holloman. Wearing her trademark red shoes, she gained 35 yards to move the ball into D.C. territory. But from there the Sharks offense sputtered and they were forced to punt.
Coming into punt for the Sharks was Megan Antonucci. Antonucci returned to the Sharks this year after taking off last season. This was her first punt in over a year as last week the Sharks did not have to punt against Philadelphia. All of that time off did not seem to hurt Antonucci as her kick netted 40 yards and pinned the Divas back to their own 6-yard line.
The Divas went back to their running game and was able to pick up 9 yards on 3 carries. But even though they only needed one more yard, it was too much of a gamble from their own 15-yard line and they decided to punt the ball. New York continued to have trouble with kick returns and they let this ball bounce back to the Sharks' 37-yard line.
New York kept with their air bourne strategy and the first pass by Mulligan on this drive was dropped by Chante Bonds. But after that, Mulligan's next 4 pass attempts not only found their targets, but the targets held onto the football. Pringle caught 12 and 8 yard passes and Bonds made up for her drop with a 31 and 12 yard receptions. The latter catch resulting in a New York touchdown. Antonucci showed she hadn't lost on thing on her kicking skills and split the uprights for the extra point to tie the game at 7 a piece with 12:15 left in the second quarter.
The Sharks scored again with 2:38 left to go in the first half. This drive started on the Divas 38-yard line and after a 13 yard catch by Pringle, Jennifer Blum picked up the rest of the yardage. It was a short pass to Blum who was quickly surrounded by 2 D.C. defenders. Blum spun around to shake off her would be tacklers and then sprinted down the left side line into the endzone, shedding one final tackler at the 1-yard line. It was a pretty spectacular run by Blum to put New York up by 6. Antonucci's kick for the extra point went wide but the Sharks had the lead.
With not much time left before the end of the half, the Divas did not have much time to grind out a score. The visitors had to open up their offensive play a little bit but it didn't help as Hemlock was sacked by Mandy Oppel and the last play of the half was an interception by Pringle.
The Divas started the second half with the ball and they went back to the basics. Using their relentless pounding running game, they grinded out a touchdown on ten straight running plays. The capper was Matthews for the final 2 yards into the endzone. The extra point went wide and this kept the score tied with 6:21 left in the third quarter.
On the ensuing kick off, Pringle fumbled the ball away and the Divas recovered. After flawless play last week on special teams, the Sharks went completely in the opposite direction. With the ball resting on the New York 34-yard line it looked like it was only a matter of time before D.C. got on the board again. If it ain't broke, don't fix it and the Divas used that as their mantra running the ball again and again. They got the ball down to the Sharks' 8-yard line before they got hit with two illegal shift penalties in a row. This pushed the Divas back and they went to their passing game. This didn't help as Toni Salvatore was able to snuff out the D.C. drive with an interception at the goal line.
While the Sharks dodged one bullet they were clearing standing in front of another one as they had first down on their own 3-yard line. To make matters worse, they were hit with too many men on the field penalty and that backed them up to the 1-yard line. Mulligan tried to pass her way out of danger but another dropped pass on third down forced the Sharks to punt.
With her feet at the back of the endzone, Antonucci shanked the kick. It went up about 10 yards in the air but only 4 yards forward. It was so short that the ball bounced off a Diva's helmut who was blocking a Shark at the line of scrimmage. New York recovered the ball and they now had a new set of downs from their own 5-yard line. New York was able to move the ball a bit farther out when Mulligan connected with Pringle for an 18-yard gain but quickly were forced to punt again from their own 27-yard line.
Maybe it was the wind currents or maybe there was something in the water. Antonucci's punt this time went very high but not too far. But like New York, D.C. was having trouble with their special teams play and they again fumbled the ball away to the home team. When you get 2 big opportunities like this you have to take advantage of them. This time New York tried to shuffle things around and went to the ground attack. At first it worked out well with a 17 yard run by Mulligan and then an electrifying 26 yard run by Holloman. The sharks got the ball as far as the 9-yard line before the drive stalled and New York was turned away with no points. The Sharks might have scored but there was another dropped pass in the endzone.
The New York defense came up big on D.C.'s next drive with the Sharks forcing the Diva's to punt. With time starting to run down into single digits, Mulligan used her arm and this time her receivers all came through in the clutch. New York moved the ball downfield in chunks with receptions to Smith and Blum. But after a quarterback sack on third down with less than 3 minutes left to go in regulation, it looked like New York might come up short. It was fourth down, the ball was on the 28-yard line and the Sharks needed to get to the 17-yard line for a fresh set of downs. Mulligan dropped back with heavy pressure around her, but she calmly lofted a pass that Smith caught at the 1-yard line. From there, Mulligan called her own number and punched it through for the go ahead touchdown. Antonucci's kick was short but the Sharks had the lead with less than 2 minutes left to go in the game.
Last year in the Eastern Conference Championship Game, the Divas had just given up a touchdown with less than one minute left to Boston. But before the cheering from the Boston fans could stop, the Divas ran the kick off back for a touchdown to win the game. With D.C. if there is time on the clock, they are still a very dangerous team. Even though time was scarce, Stephenson got the Divas in good field position by returning the kick off to the New York 44-yard line. Playing against the prevent defense, Hemlock took advantage and made two quick strikes of 16 yard each to Stephenson and Esther George. With the ball resting on the 12-yard line, the Divas called a running play and gave it to LaShawn Foust for a big 6 yard gain to the 6-yard line. With less than a minute left, Hemlock threw a sideline pass to Stephenson who was quickly tackled by Bonds for no gain. It was now fourth down and Hemlock threw the ball on a timing route to Stephenson in the endzone. The ball bounced off her fingertips and fell harmlessly to the ground. The Sharks won.
By beating the Eastern Conference Champions, this proved that the Sharks are back with the elite teams of women's pro football. The victory improves the Sharks record to 2-0 and they are now tied at the top of a very crowded North Atlantic Division with the Boston Militia (2-0) and the Pittsburgh Passion (2-0). Both of these teams are on New York's tough schedule. But until that time, the Sharks play the Connecticut Crushers next week at the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn. If you cannot make it, listen to Pat Brown and Dave Maxwell describe all of the action on WFNradio. Kick-off time is 3:30pm (EDT).
D.C. Divas 7-0-6-0: 13
New York Sharks 0-13-0-6: 19
First Quarter
DC - (04:21) Stephenson 13 yard pass from Hemlock (Hemlock kick)
Second Quarter
NY - (12:15) Bonds 12 yard pass from Mulligan (Antonucci kick)
NY - (02:38) Blum 25 yard pass from Mulligan (Kick failed)
Third Quarter
DC - (06:21) Matthews 2 yard run (kick failed)
Fourth Quarter
NY - (01:54) Mulligan 1 yard run (Kick failed)
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