By: Trevon Purdie
Tampa FL- Saturday night, the Tampa Bay Storm hosted the Spokane shock at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. The Shock would go on to defeat the Storm 53-41 behind quarterback Erik Meyer's eight touchdown passes.
Tampa Bay started the game with a Randy Hippeard 5 yard pass to T.T. Toliver to put the Storm up 6-0 after missing the extra point attempt. The Shock answered quickly after Meyer rushed for a touchdown, putting Spokane up 7-6. A 26 yard touchdown pass from Storm receiver Joe Hills would finish the quarter with a Tampa Bay lead of 13-7.
Two minutes in the second quarter, Meyer connected with Adron Tennell on a 5 yard pass, but a missed extra point attempt kept the game tied 13-13. On the Storm's next drive, Hippeard hit Michael Lindsey for a 46 yard touchdown to give Tampa the lead again 20-13. Meyer rushed the ball in for another Shock touchdown on their next drive to bring Spokane within one putting the score at 20-19. A quarterback sneak for a touchdown by Hippeard and a 6 yard touchdown from Meyer to Bran Thompkins would end the first half with Tampa Bay up 27-26
The Shock opened the second half on a 15 yard touchdown pass from Meyer to Mike Washington to give them the lead 33-27. Tampa Bay Storm kick returner Michael Lindsey would go on to break George LaFrance's franchise career kickoff return yardage mark of 5,116. Lindsey currently has 5,138 . Once again the Storm answered back, with Dexter Jackson rushing the ball in for a Storm one yard touchdown, giving Tampa Bay a 34-33 lead. The Spokane Shock would close out the quarter on another pass from Meyer to Tennell to put Spokane up 40-34.
After a Storm four yard touchdown pass from Hippeard to Amarri Jackson, Spokane would score the last two touchdowns of the game on two Meyer and Thompkins connections.
This gives the Storm their third straight loss.“In the second half we had some people not believing,” Samuels said. “Being a young team when things go badly for you, we need to dig deeper. As a coaching staff we’ll address that next week and get our team on the right foot.” The Storm hope to turn things around when they host the Portland Thunder on May 3 at 7:30 p.m.