Written by Elliott Nunez
Tampa, FL - Shane Austin threw for 221 yards and 7 touchdowns to lead the Cleveland Gladiators to their first victory of the 2015 season over the Tampa Bay Storm at Amalie Arena in front of a crowd of 9,727.
Cleveland Gladiators got on the board first with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Shane Austin to Dominick Goodman that made it 7-0 with 8:24 left in the 1st quarter
The Storm were able to answer right back with a passing touchdown of their own as Jason Boltus connected with Jarvis Williams for a 19-yard touchdown to put Tampa on the board and tie it up 7-7 with 5:45 remaining in the 1stquarter.
As we hit the second quarter it was all Cleveland as Shane Austin started things off with a deep 24-yard bomb to wide receiver Andrae Thurman putting them up 19-7. The Gladiators continued to rally immediately after the touchdown with a strong defensive effort by Joe Phinisee forcing a fumble and recovering the ball in the end zone for another score in the 2nd quarter with 13:35 remaining.
We ended the first half with Cleveland in full control with a 39 -21 lead. Storm Quarterback Jason Boltus ended the half with 180 yards and 3 passing touchdowns.
Cleveland’s Amarri Jackson opened the game up with a 20-yard touchdown reception, which led the Gladiators to set the tone and begin to runaway with the game.
After the Gladiators were able to extend their lead, both teams traded scores 6 times to end the game with a score of 60-44. Following the Tough loss, head coach of the Storm Lawrence Samuels discussed how their lack of ball security cost them the game “we have to protect our guys, we can’t turn the ball over and we have to create turnovers, there were too many mistakes all around.”
The Tampa Bay Storm look to get there first win next week as they head to Portland to take on the Portland Thunder Friday April 3rd at the Moda Center with a 10 pm ET scheduled kickoff.