Saturday, May 29, 1999
Hammerheads light up
'We started the week aiming
Thunder, 37-18
for the playoffs. Now we have to
aim for the top spot, as
long as we can win
on the road.'
Guy Benjamin
HAMMERHEADS HEAD COACH
By Jerry Campany
Special to the Star-BulletinThe Hawaii Hammerheads beat the Rocky Mountain Thunder, 37-18, last night at the Blaisdell Arena to leapfrog Colorado and take a spot in the Indoor Professional Football League playoff picture.
The win gave Hawaii a two-game home sweep. The Hammerheads rolled over the Thunder, 57-40, last Sunday.
Hawaii came into the week at 2-3, two games behind Colorado and the Texas Terminators (4-1), but vaulted into second place with the two big wins. The top three teams will make the playoffs, with the top team getting a bye.
After witnessing his team's recent winning run at home, Hammerheads head coach Guy Benjamin knows where to set his sights as he takes his team on the road for the next month.
"We started the week aiming for the playoffs," Benjamin said. "Now we have to aim for the top spot, as long as we can win on the road. A lot of Hawaii sports at a lot of different levels have had trouble on the road, but we are getting enough great individual plays from great individual players."
The Hammerheads return home to face first place Texas on July 3 at the Blaisdell.
Falaniko Vitale became the league's top scorer with the first of his two first quarter sweeps into the end zone to help the Hammerheads to an 18-7 halftime lead.
The Thunder closed to within four, 22-18, with 10:29 left in the game, but they came unglued after they stopped Vitale on three successive goal line plays to set up a crucial fourth-and-goal from the one with just under seven minutes left.
Vitale swept right and bulled through a wall of resistance into the endzone for a score, but Thunder defensive back Damon Jackson saw it differently. He inadvertently took out the referee on that side of the field and quit on the play when he thought he saw Vitale step out of bounds.
Jackson went nuts upon seeing the referees arms raised to signal a touchdown, and argued with the officials until teammate Norm Barnett came to his aid. Barnett took a position in the middle of a scrum of players and officials and drew three successive flags for continuing to voice his opinion on the call before being ejected.
"I don't know if it was a bad call or not," Thunder running back Darnell Brooks said. "I only know that Norm (Barnett) felt he was justified in arguing the call, and that is all I need to know. We usually come into a game to beat the opposing team and the officials, we didn't do that today."
Calvin Mims ran in the two-point conversion to give Hawaii a 30-18 lead. On Colorado's next play from scrimmage, Torres threw a pass over the middle that was juggled and intercepted by Chris Paogofie, his second pick in as many games against the Thunder.
Colorado offensive lineman Zuri Gay drew another penalty for his team trying to retaliate for a perceived late hit on his quarterback. Torres was laid out on the play, but left under his own power and took Colorado's hopes with him. Mims punctuated it with a 16-yard sweep into the end zone three plays later to wrap up the scoring with 2:44 left.
Colorado 0 7 8 3--18 Hawaii 16 2 2 17--37HI: Falaniko Vitale 13 run (Kick failed)
HI: Team Safety
HI: Vitale 10 run (Vitale run)
RM: Joe Sanders 2 run (John Heffelfinger kick)
HI: Zerin Kahn 11 field goal (2 points)
RM: Damon Jackson 13 Field goal (2 points)
HI: Khan 14 field goal (2 points)
RM: Cory Spence 1 pass from John Torres (Pass failed)
HI: Khan 10 field goal (2 points)
RM: Heffelfinger 26 field goal (3 points)
HI: Vitale 2 run (Calvin Mims run)
HI: Mims 16 run (Khan kick)Rushing--Colorado: Jones 6-18, Brooks 7-15, Gordon 3-8, Total: 16-41. Hawaii: Mims 7-44, Vitale 9-34, Carey 3-15, Totals 19-93.
Passing--Colorado: Torres 12-22, 86 yds, TD, 2 Int. Hawaii: Carey 16-20, 134 yds.
Receiving--Colorado: Spence 5-27, Jones 3-28, Jackson 2-18, Brooks 2-13. Hawaii: Vitale 6-58, Tillis 3-30, Mims 3-15, Ellison 1-13, Odom 1-7.
