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Blitz wear down No nail-biter this time.
Islanders for
first arena loss
Arceneaux and Paogofie meet
their match in Chad Elliott
and Steve WoffordBy Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.comThe Bakersfield Blitz blitzed the Hawaiian Islanders 52-32 in front of 2,998 fans at the Blaisdell Arena last night.
After an evenly played first half, the Blitz began to wear the Islanders down in the third quarter and eventually outscored them 26-9 in the second half.
With the decisive win, Bakersfield improved to 2-0 in the arenafootball2 West Division and took a one-game lead over Hawaii (1-1). They'll play twice more this season.
It was a far cry from the teams' season openers, when the Islanders won in the final few seconds over Fresno and the Blitz beat San Diego in overtime.
"We made some adjustments, especially on coverages, and it worked," Bakersfield coach James Fuller said. "We put in a lot of hard work in practice on those coverages, so it paid off. We were able to take advantage of Hawaii's mistakes in the second half."
Islanders quarterback Darnell Arceneaux, who finished 10 of 24 for 160 yards, completed just four passes in the second half for 56 yards, not quite comeback material.
Most of Bakersfield's offensive damage was done by quarterback Chad Elliott and offensive specialist Steve Wofford. Elliott finished 23 of 35 for 267 yards and five touchdowns, including three to Wofford.
"Chad knows the plays out there before I call them," Fuller said. "And that's the kind of quarterback I want out there, one that plays like another coach."
The Blitz led just 32-29 midway through the third quarter and pulled away on Elliott's TD strikes of 25 yards to Wofford and 37 yards to Ryan Sloth along with Gabriel Crecion's 3-yard TD jaunt.
The Islanders' only answer was Jake Huggins' 43-yard field goal.
"Actually, I think we played better than we did two weeks ago (in the opening win)," Islanders coach Guy Benjamin said. "What happened is, when you play a good team -- and they're a good team -- we fumble and don't score and then they score, so instead of us getting back in it, they go ahead even more. And then we drop a few passes and we're out of the game. It happens a lot in arena football. You'll have a close game and then, boom, boom, boom, one team will begin to take it away. We gotta stay with it."
The fumble -- by Arceneaux on the Bakersfield 13 -- came with the Blitz up 38-29. It took awhile, but the Blitz were the next team to score, grabbing a 45-29 lead on Sloth's catch with 10:12 to go.
Julian Yearwood scored first for Bakersfield in the first half with a 1-yard TD run, and Darnell Arceneaux quickly offset that, scoring from 3 yards out.
The wild, end-to-end, high-flying, scoring-filled action began right after the opening kickoff.
On the first play from scrimmage, Arceneaux launched a 32-yard pass to a zig-zagging Isaac White to set up the first score -- Arceneaux's 7-yard scramble in which he was nearly sacked, but reversed from the left side all the way around to the right and motored in along the boards for a 6-0 lead.
Robert Nycz's 35-yard field goal for Bakersfield made it 6-3 after Elliott's pass went in and out of the hands of Wofford in the end zone.
Nycz tied it at 6-all late in the first quarter with a 25-yard boot.
The Islanders went up 12-6 early in the second quarter when Chris Paogofie scooted up the middle for a 2-yard TD, but lineman Morrie Roe also made some noise on the play, blocking the Blitz's Sloth up and over the end zone boards. While Roe was celebrating, Sloth came back over the boards and pushed Roe from behind and tripped over another player, but the officials quickly got the situation under control.
The teams traded 27-yard TD passes -- Elliott to Wofford and Arceneaux to Paogofie -- as the Islanders retained a slim 20-13. Elliott hit Wofford again from 8 yards out for a 20-20 tie.
Huggins put Hawaii up 23-20 with a 44-yard field goal before Bakersfield took a 26-23 halftime lead as Nathan Munson hauled in Elliott's 4-yard over-the-middle TD pass.
"Bakersfield may have been in a little bit better condition," Hawaii's Benjamin said. "But I don't think they physically wore us down. The good thing is that we improved in many facets of the game, especially special teams."
Fuller agreed his team was well-conditioned.
"We've conditioned very hard and we're a second-half team," he said. "I wonder what it would be like if we could put it together in the first half, too."
In its victory over San Diego, Bakersfield rallied from 24 points down.
Wofford ended with 13 catches for 132 yards.
Hawaii's Darrell Jones caught four passes for 42 yards, and he added 194 yards on eight kickoff returns. White added two receptions for 44 yards.
On the defensive side, Hawaii newcomer Phil Austin made seven tackles and Sae Paogofie added 612.
Vaughn Corley led Bakersfield with 412 tackles.
Blitz 52, Islanders 32
Bakersfield 6 20 12 14 -- 52 Hawaii 6 17 6 3 -- 32 First quarter
Hawaii -- Darnell Arceneaux 7 run (kick blocked)
Bakersfield -- FG Robert Nycz 35
Bakersfield -- FG Nycz 25Second quarter
Hawaii -- Chris Paogofie 2 run (kick failed)
Bakersfield -- Steve Wofford 27 pass from Chad Elliott (Nycz kick)
Hawaii -- C. Paogofie 27 pass from Arceneaux (Paogofie pass)
Bakersfield -- Wofford 8 pass from Elliott (Nycz kick)
Hawaii -- FG Jake Huggins 44
Bakersfield -- Nathan Munson 4 pass from Elliott (kick failed)Third quarter
Bakersfield -- Julian Yearwood 1 run (kick failed)
Hawaii -- Arceneaux 3 run (kick failed)
Bakersfield -- Wofford 25 pass from Elliott (kick failed)Fourth quarter
Bakersfield -- Ryan Sloth 37 pass from Elliott (Nycz kick)
Hawaii -- FG Huggins 43
Bakersfield -- Gabriel Crecion 2 run (Nycz kick)RUSHING -- Bakersfield: Crecion 4-15, Yearwood 2-4, Elliott 2-1. Total 8-20. Hawaii: Arceneaux 6-16, Darrell Jones 2-14, Derek Zoller 2-8, C.Paogofie 2-4, Robert Kemfort 1-4, Danny Katoa 1-3. Total 14-49
PASSING -- Bakersfield: Elliott 23-35-0-267. Hawaii: Arceneaux 24-10-0-160.
RECEIVING -- Bakersfield: Wofford 13-132, Sloth 4-91, Munson 3-19, Larry Henderson 2-15, Vaughn Corley 1-10. Hawaii: Jones 4-42, Isaac White 2-44, C.Paogofie 2-42, Sae Paogofie 1-16, Kemfort 1-16.
A -- 2,998.
Hawaiian Islanders