Written by Parker Boyce
Tampa, FL- The Tampa Bay Storm were trailing Cleveland by five points with seconds remaining in the 4th quarter. Storm quarterback Randy Hippeard showed us his running skills with a one-yard run to give the Storm a 62-61 lead with 3 seconds left to go in the 4th quarter giving Tampa Bay its second win of the season.
Things kicked into high gear for the Storm in the second half starting with Dexter Jackson’s fumble recovery. Storm head coach Ron James spoke after the game about what happened with that play that ended up turning it all around for Tampa, . “Well we talked about it in the locker room, we needed that extra possession and we got that prior to the half in position to be able to score and go up on them which we did the hard way, we had to get a defensive to go ahead and do that”.
With seven seconds left to go in the game and the Storm down 61-56, Hippeard took the snap and was looking for WR Kendrick Ings for the end zone. With Ings being covered Hippeard decided to go for it. Storm quarterback Randy Hippeard ran outside of the pocket untouched off the right side and rushed into the end zone to give the Storm a crazy 62-61 home victory win over the Cleveland Gladiators.
Down there, anytime you get that close, a lot of eyes go on Joe,” Hippeard spoke to the press after the game. “We isolated him. We’d been beating them all game with that, and so I knew the formation we had, they had to send the jack (linebacker) one way or the other, and I just kind of took it upon myself to say we have one timeout if we needed it, if I could find a hole to squeeze it in because they probably weren’t paying attention to me”.
“It wasn’t a clean as we would have liked, but we got the win. We’re a resiliant bunch, we have bunch of guys that know how to handle the situation, we talk about those situations and work on them every day in practice. All those situations, they’re learning as were growing, learning with a win is a big factor for us right now moving forward into the bye week.” Said Storm head coach Ron James after the game.
We had to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Dexter Jackson said of the Storm defense’s adjustment. “We knew we weren’t playing our best football that first half. We kept talking to each other. Coach James kept telling us we were going to get a stop and we’re going to score points, and we just believed in ourselves.”
For the Cleveland Gladiators, they fell to 11-11 all-time vs. the Storm. In his first start for the season, Arvel Nelson threw for 358 yards and seven touchdowns completing 26 of 35 passes, adding 16 rushing yards on four attempts and a touchdown on the ground. Wide Receiver Quentin Sims led all Cleveland receivers with 14 receptions for 205 yards and 5 scores while Michael Preston finished second in all receiving categories with 6 catches for 68 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Post-Game Awards:
Offensive player of the game: Tampa Bay Storm QB Randy Hippeard 37/47, 395 passing yards, 7 passing touchdowns, 2 rushing touchdowns.
Defensive Player of the game: Tampa Bay Storm DB Cortez Stubbs: 9 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss of 3 yards. 1 pass defended.
MVP of the game: Tampa Bay Emergency K Delbert Alvarado 8 for 8 on extra point attempts, 49.5-yard kickoff average on 8 kickoffs and 2 touchbacks.
The Tampa Bay storm will have a bye week before traveling to take on Baltimore on May 7th.
Things kicked into high gear for the Storm in the second half starting with Dexter Jackson’s fumble recovery. Storm head coach Ron James spoke after the game about what happened with that play that ended up turning it all around for Tampa, . “Well we talked about it in the locker room, we needed that extra possession and we got that prior to the half in position to be able to score and go up on them which we did the hard way, we had to get a defensive to go ahead and do that”.
With seven seconds left to go in the game and the Storm down 61-56, Hippeard took the snap and was looking for WR Kendrick Ings for the end zone. With Ings being covered Hippeard decided to go for it. Storm quarterback Randy Hippeard ran outside of the pocket untouched off the right side and rushed into the end zone to give the Storm a crazy 62-61 home victory win over the Cleveland Gladiators.
Down there, anytime you get that close, a lot of eyes go on Joe,” Hippeard spoke to the press after the game. “We isolated him. We’d been beating them all game with that, and so I knew the formation we had, they had to send the jack (linebacker) one way or the other, and I just kind of took it upon myself to say we have one timeout if we needed it, if I could find a hole to squeeze it in because they probably weren’t paying attention to me”.
“It wasn’t a clean as we would have liked, but we got the win. We’re a resiliant bunch, we have bunch of guys that know how to handle the situation, we talk about those situations and work on them every day in practice. All those situations, they’re learning as were growing, learning with a win is a big factor for us right now moving forward into the bye week.” Said Storm head coach Ron James after the game.
We had to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Dexter Jackson said of the Storm defense’s adjustment. “We knew we weren’t playing our best football that first half. We kept talking to each other. Coach James kept telling us we were going to get a stop and we’re going to score points, and we just believed in ourselves.”
For the Cleveland Gladiators, they fell to 11-11 all-time vs. the Storm. In his first start for the season, Arvel Nelson threw for 358 yards and seven touchdowns completing 26 of 35 passes, adding 16 rushing yards on four attempts and a touchdown on the ground. Wide Receiver Quentin Sims led all Cleveland receivers with 14 receptions for 205 yards and 5 scores while Michael Preston finished second in all receiving categories with 6 catches for 68 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Post-Game Awards:
Offensive player of the game: Tampa Bay Storm QB Randy Hippeard 37/47, 395 passing yards, 7 passing touchdowns, 2 rushing touchdowns.
Defensive Player of the game: Tampa Bay Storm DB Cortez Stubbs: 9 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss of 3 yards. 1 pass defended.
MVP of the game: Tampa Bay Emergency K Delbert Alvarado 8 for 8 on extra point attempts, 49.5-yard kickoff average on 8 kickoffs and 2 touchbacks.
The Tampa Bay storm will have a bye week before traveling to take on Baltimore on May 7th.