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The Hawaiian Islanders (1-1) left last night for Moline, Illinois, to play the defending arenafootball2 league champion Quad City Steamwheelers (2-0) tomorrow. Islanders off to Illinois
for first road gameBy Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.comQuad City has been strong on defense, allowing an average of 30.5 points per game.
"This is a good test against a veteran team and a way to measure ourselves to where we want to be," Islanders coach Guy Benjamin said.
"Even though they're (Quad City) the defending champs, they've got a new coaching staff and mostly a new team with a lot of players having gone on to Arena 1, but it's a winning organization that knows how to put a team together."
The game is 2 p.m. Hawaii time and can be heard live on KCCN 1420-AM.
Hard-core legion: The Islanders experienced a drop in attendance for their second game Saturday, but there wasn't a lack of hard-core fans.
Jason Purdy, 35, and Patrick Costa, 41, are two shining examples.
"I enjoy it immensely," said Purdy, a Roberts Hawaii employee who brings his wife and kids to the games. "I love the impact and the hard hitting that makes the wall move. It's a fast-paced game."
Decked in a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey and matching stocking cap, Purdy made sure he mentioned the most important part of his presence at the Blaisdell Arena.
"Trash-talking to the other team, that's my job," he said. "And I'm coming to every game."
Costa and his 12-year-old son, Dane Costa, were slightly more subdued in their enthusiasm for Islanders football.
Dane was wearing a bright red Islanders replica jersey with Hawaii tackles leader Sae Paogofie's No. 9 on it.
"I like being close to the action," said Patrick Costa, who works for the City & County of Honolulu. "It's hands-on and not like Aloha Stadium, where you see small figures on the field. I'm sitting 10 yards away and I can hear and feel the contact.
"We'll definitely be back, and I wish more people would come out. I think there were a lot of other things happening on the island."
There were 2,998 fans in the stands for Hawaii's 52-32 loss to the Bakersfield Blitz, down from the 4,376 figure in the season opener two weeks earlier.
Roster changes: Four new players were on the roster for the Islanders against Bakersfield -- defensive specialists Desmond Maul and Phil Austin, wide receiver/ linebacker Stevie Laulu and wide receiver/defensive back Wesley Morris.
Morris has since been put on injured reserve, and Maul has been waived along with lineman Miles Garner and defensive specialist Kenny Harper.
Three players from Japan --defensive specialists Katsuhiro Motono and Tetsuya Akiyama and fullback/linebacker Rikiya Ishida --are off the roster while they wait for work visas.
For tomorrow's game, the Islanders activated fullback/ linebacker Avion Weaver from injured reserve and have added wide receiver/defensive back William Laskey and lineman Taulia Lave.
Many of the moves are "manipulations" of the 21-man roster.
For instance, Benjamin said Garner, nursing a minor injury, is expected to be back with the team next week.
Only one real stop: Bakersfield scored on nine of its 12 possessions last week, and the Islanders halted them just once on downs. The other two times the Blitz didn't score came when time ran out in both halves.
The Hawaii secondary fell victim to three long Bakersfield touchdown passes, including two in the pivotal stretch from late in the third quarter to early in the fourth.
"We have to get a couple of stops," Benjamin said. "You can't cover everything up in this game, so our philosophy is to have the opponents complete the ball underneath us and then try to be physical with them after the catch. We can't give up the deep passes"
Benjamin believes that almost everyone on the team had better games against Bakersfield than against Fresno, and he feels the secondary will be improved this week.
Laskey played in Arena 1 with the Portland Firedragons, and he'll be starting, while the hard-hitting Austin, who hadn't played in three years, has his first arena start behind him.
Hawaiian Islanders