MISSOULA 41  GREAT FALLS 13

Great Falls Gladiators at Missoula Raptors, May 7, 2005

MISSOULA – The Missoula Raptors exploded for 21 unanswered third quarter points to convert a 17-7 halftime lead into a 38-7 blow out before a large home town crowd at Loyola Rams Stadium in Missoula, Montana.

After opening up a 7-0 lead on a big 47-yard Justin Nixon touchdown romp, the Gladiators fought back to tie the game after Brad Thurber found Joe Reza for an 11-yard touchdown pass.  At that point, however, the Missoula Raptors pulled away.  The Raptors would score the next 34 unanswered points into the 4th quarter to bury the Gladiators and then cruise in for a 41-13 victory.

Nixon had a monster game for the Raptors, rushing for 112 yards on 18 carries and two touchdowns and catching another 30 yards in passes for a combined effort of 142 total yards from scrimmage to pace the Raptor offense.  Raptor starting quarterback Buckie Brawley only completed 4 passes, however, 2 of them were big touchdown plays to Tony Roman (53 yards) and  Tyler Boaz (30 yards) to help fuel the explosion.  Rapheal Roberts was good on all 5 extra points and nailed two field goals to complete the scoring that included a defensive score midway through the 3rd quarter when Nathan Stevens had one of his 3 interceptions and returned it 31-yards to paydirt to add insult to injury to the reeling Gladiators.

Beyond the lopsided score, however, the Gladiator defense was solid most of the game, including a 7 sack performance lead by Mike Rhode who had 2 sacks to go along with 5-1/2 tackles on the day.  Keon Pinckney had 6 tackles and Reid Merriweather had 5-1/2 in a losing effort as the Raptor offense proved to be too much for a stout 6th ranked Gladiator defense.

The Raptors, of course, had a number of stars.  Besides Nixon who lead the day on offense, Tad Sheridan once again had an all-star performance on defense, picking up 5 tackles including 1-1/2 sacks.  Stevens’ 3 interceptions was the other big defensive story for the Raptors, it tied the old RMFL record for interceptions in a game until later in the day when Yharmaan Williams of the Idaho Matadors set a new single game mark with 4 against the Boise Roughriders in a losing cause. The Raptor defense, which had been summarily torched the previous week by the Wasatch Wildcats recovered nicely in holding the Gladiator offense to a meager 124 net yards on the day.

 

 

1st Quarter

2nd Quarter

3rd Quarter

4th Quarter

Final

Great Falls

7

0

0

6

13

Missoula

14

3

21

3

41

 

Scoring Summary:

 

1st Quarter

 

Missoula: Nixon 47-yard run (Roberts kick)

Great Falls: Reza 11-yard pass from Thurber (Beatty kick) 7:50

Missoula: Roman 53-yard pass from Brawley (Roberts kick)

 

2nd Quarter

 

Missoula: Roberts 40-yard field goal

 

3rd Quarter

 

Missoula: Boaz 30-yard pass from Brawley (Roberts kick)

Missoula: Stevens 31-yard interception return (Roberts kick)

Missoula: Nixon 1-yard run (Roberts kick)

 

4th Quarter

 

Missoula: Roberts 30-yard field goal

Great Falls: Kennedy 2-yard run (kick failed) 8:37

 

 

GREAT FALLS

MISSOULA

 

First Downs

4

19

 

Rushes-Yds

19

50

45

154

 

Passing

7--19--3

9--20--1

 

Passing Yds.

90

186

 

Sacked-Yds

2

16

7

46

 

Net Passing Yds.

74

140

 

Total Yds.

124

294

 

Punts - Avg.

4-32.5

2-36.0

 

Penalties -Yds

6

30

4

25

 

Fumbles - Lost

1

1

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Individual Stats:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rushing:

 

 

 

 

 

Player -Team

Tot. Att.

Tot. Yds

TD's

2 pts.

 

Chad Kennedy - Great Falls

7

20

1

0

 

Jason Kjono - Great Falls

4

20

0

0

 

Keon Pinckney - Great Falls

2

6

0

0

 

Brad Thurber - Great Falls

3

6

0

0

 

Clint Cannon - Great Falls

3

-2

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justin Nixon - Missoula

18

112

2

0

 

Gavin Johnson - Missoula

10

35

0

0

 

Buckie Brawley - Missoula

7

13

0

0

 

Nick Lumpkin - Missoula

1

9

0

0

 

Derek Azure - Missoula

1

3

0

0

 

TJ Ward - Missoula

1

1

0

0

 

Ray Medlin - Missoula

1

0

0

0

 

Willy Williams - Missoula

2

-2

0

0

 

Josh Elder - Missoula

2

-4

0

0

 

Alex Weinstein - Missoula

2

-13

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passing:

 

 

 

 

 

Player

Comp.

Att.

Yds

TD's

Int.

Richard Thompson - Great Falls

4

11

51

0

2

Brad Thurber - Great Falls

2

7

14

1

2

Joe Reza - Great Falls

1

1

25

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buckie Brawley - Missoula

4

14

118

2

1

Tony Sanderson - Missoula

1

1

33

0

0

James Compton - Missoula

3

3

29

0

0

Gavin Johnson - Missoula

1

1

6

0

0

Jeremy Wood - Missoula

0

1

0

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

Receiving:

 

 

 

 

 

Player

Recepts.

Yards

Td's

2 pts.

 

Jermaine Saunders - Great Falls

4

74

0

0

 

Joe Reza - Great Falls

1

11

1

0

 

Jason Kjono - Great Falls

2

5

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grant Roman - Missoula

2

67

1

0

 

Tyler Boaz - Missoula

2

35

1

0

 

Tad Sheridan - Missoula

1

33

0

0

 

Justin Nixon - Missoula

2

30

0

0

 

Nick Lumpkin - Missoula

1

6

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defense:

 

 

 

 

 

Player

Tackles

Sacks

Intercepts

TD's

 

Keon Pinckney - Great Falls

6

0

0

0

 

Mike Rhode - Great Falls

5.5

2

0

0

 

Reid Merriweather - Great Falls

5.5

0

0

0

 

Mike Pease - Great Falls

5

0.5

0

0

 

Chad Kennedy - Great Falls

4.5

0

0

0

 

David Craig - Great Falls

4

1.5

0

0

 

John Garcia - Great Falls

4

0.5

0

0

 

Sam Morgan - Great Falls

4

2

0

0

 

Brad Thurber - Great Falls

3

0

0

0

 

Los Sanders - Great Falls

2

0

0

0

 

Chris Schindling - Great Falls

1

0

0

0

 

Jermaine Saunders - Great Falls

1

0

0

0

 

Chris Lavendar - Great Falls

1

0.5

0

0

 

Shannon Moore - Great Falls

1

0

0

0

 

Junior Walter - Great Falls

1

0

0

0

 

Mo Sipili - Great Falls

1

0

0

0

 

Josh Kaululaau - Great Falls

1

0

0

0

 

Joe Raiza - Great Falls

0.5

0

1

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tad Sheridan - Missoula

5

1.5

0

0

 

Brian Hughes - Missoula

4

0

0

0

 

Nathan Stevens - Missoula

4

0

3

1

 

Jamie Jones - Missoula

3.5

0.5

0

0

 

Paul Ryan - Missoula

3

0

0

0

 

Greg Graham - Missoula

2.5

0

0

0

 

Max McCracken - Missoula

2

0

0

0

 

Ben Adams - Missoula

2

0

0

0

 

Tony Sanderson - Missoula

2

0

0

0

 

Rob Sims - Missoula

2

0

0

0

 

Jake Tubbs - Missoula

2

0

0

0

 

Rajiem Seabrook - Missoula

1.5

0

0

0

 

James Jacobson - Missoula

1.5

0

0

0

 

Bryan Hellyer - Missoula

1

0

0

0

 

Scott Wik - Misoula

1

0

0

0

 

Matt Menke - Missoula

1

0

0

0

 

Tyrell Crowell - Missoula

1

0

0

0

 

Buckie Brawley - Missoula

1

0

0

0

 

Adam Fauhl - Missoula

1

0

0

0

 

Jeff Maynard - Missoula

0

0

1

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kick Returns:

 

 

 

 

 

Player

Punt Ret

Punt Yds

Kick Ret

Kick Yds

 

Reid Merriweather - Great Falls

2

17

3

51

 

Joe Reza - Great Falls

0

0

3

63

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan Stevens - Missoula

1

26

0

0

 

Tony Roman - Missoula

1

20

0

0

 

Nick Lumpkin - Missoula

2

20

0

0

 

Gavin Johnson - Missoula

0

0

1

17

 

Josh Elder - Missoula

0

0

1

9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kicking:

 

 

 

 

 

Player

xpt att

xpt made

fg att

fg made

 

Kyle Beatty - Great Falls

2

1

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raphael Roberts - Missoula

5

5

5

2