FRAGGLE ROCK (BP) -- After a hearbreaking opening season loss to the Yukon Gold Rush 14-7, the Blacksburg Ballers came into today's game pumped and ready to play. And were they ever ready, with a 24-0 dominating performance against the Fraggle Rock Death Squad. The punishing defense and impressive offensive performance by the Ballers helped them earn their first Canada Pro victory.
"It feels like a weight off your shoulders," FB Russell Roch said who led the Ballers with 2 rushing scores. "The whole year there's been speculation that we can only win in the lower leagues. But obviously you saw in week 1 we can hang with the big time teams and now we can say we can beat Pro teams too."
The Ballers certainly had a "Pro" performance this afternoon. Gaining an impressive 374.5 total yds of offense as well as churning out 176.5 rushing yds.
Star running back Jesse Lumsden had 91 yds on 23 carries and Russell Roch had 2 bruising touchdown scores. Roch has now been promoted to most of the Ballers short yardage plays after an impressive season last year which saw him score 12 rushing touchdowns.
The offensive line also improved their play.
They had a dismal performance last week against the Yukon Gold Rush in which they gave up 6 hurries, 4 sacks, and could only manage to pave the way for 24 total rushing yds. However following an inspirational pep talk during practice on Monday by offensive coordinator Ryan Betesta Sr., the line was able to hold their own today. Only giving up 1 sack and paving the way for over 170 total rushing yds.
"It feels great for us to have that type of performance," OT Fatty McMuffin said who has stepped up this season as the leader of the offensive line. "We played together as a 5 man unit and not 5 men divided like last week. As long as we continue our performance we'll win more games."
The same could not be said however for the passing game.
QB Khari Jones who has been criticized by the media in the past for his sporadic play, is once again being questioned as the starting QB of the team. Newspapers such as the Blacksburg Post have called him "erratic at best" and ESPN Senior CPL Analyst Chris Mortensen said "he's not efficient enough to be in this league."
Jones didn't finish with awful numbers, but they were not what Blacksburg was expecting. He only completed 21 of 40 passes for 198 yds 1 TD and 1 INT. Thus far for the season he has yet to go over a QB rating of 73 and has not passed for over 200 yds despite averaging 36 attempts per game.
"I've seen the criticism from all of those guys," Jones said who has been reluctant to answer the questions raised about his ability. "I can't do anything about what a paper writes I just got to play, you know. So when I see stuff written by Chris [Mortensen] and the [Blacksburg] Post I just take it as a challenge instead of getting worked up. I will say it's been difficult with some of the new defensive formations I've seen and throwing to a couple new guys. Just keep the faith and I think you'll see me return to back to the Khari Jones of last season."
The Blacksburg defense however has stayed the same, which is a good thing for the Ballers. Ranked as one of the top defenses last year in AAA #2, the Ballers have not missed a step. Last week holding the high powered Gold Rush offense to 7 points and now this week shutting out the Death Squad.
The Ballers actually had more team rushing yds than the Death Squad had total yds, with 176.5 rushing yds for the Ballers and 175 team yds for the Death Squad.
"The whole squad is just doing phenomenal," CB Beast Baily said who had 7 passes defended and 9 tackles. "The chemistry and willingness of guys to learn has really helped. I'm especially impressed by our new interior lineman and the play of our linebackers. They have really stepped up to the challenge and delivered."
The Ballers next week will have yet another challenge they will need to step up to. A home game against the Manitoba Maniacs who come in at 0-2 and 13th in the CPL Western Conference. This is no cakewalk as there have been a few upsets already in CPL action so the Ballers will have to stay hot on their toes.
*****************************
Game Ball: FB Russell Roch
The short yardage monster. A reincarnation of William "the Refrigerator" Perry. Whatever you want to call him the guy is a stud. He will break your bones if he is in his path to the endzone and he proved that twice today. Finishing with 6 carries for 28.5 yds and 2 TD's. Congragulations Russell and all of the Ballers, keep up the solid play!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment