At 4-3 we sit .5 games behind Honolulu and 1.5 games behind Arizona. A loss here won't destroy our season, but a win would certainly help get us back in contention, especially with our next game being against Honolulu. Long Beach scares me, though, as they're way too talented to be just 2-5. 2-6 seems all the more absurd, so I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst with this one.
On to the action!
Code:
Box Score: Long Beach at Tucson
Tucson, AZ.
Week 9, 2009
Attendance: 67,000 (69,800).
Weather: 51 degrees, fair.
2Q: 11:54 TUC - Rubin Castorena 19 field goal.
3Q: 10:20 TUC - Sydney Armitage 3 pass from Milan "Colonel" Hogan.
3Q: 10:20 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
3Q: 04:29 LBE - Gregory Edelman 2 pass from Joshua Urrutia.
3Q: 04:29 LBE - Frederic Swallow extra point.
4Q: 14:25 TUC - Drew Holliday 2 run.
4Q: 14:25 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
4Q: 06:02 TUC - Rubin Castorena 47 field goal.
Game MVP: TUC 4 Milan "Colonel" Hogan
Long Beach 0 0 7 0 - 7
Tucson 0 3 7 10 - 20
Team Statistics LBE TUC
First Downs 16 22
Total Rushes 30 42
Rushing Yards 82 172
Yards Per Carry 2.7 4.0
Pass Attempts 30 24
Completions 16 18
Passing Yards 167 200
Yards Per Attempt 5.5 8.3
Sacked 0 1
Yards Lost 0 5
Interceptions 2 0
Fumbles/Lost 0/0 1/0
Total Plays 60 67
Total Yards 249 367
Yards Per Play 4.1 5.4
3rd Down Plays 6/13 9/15
Avg. YTG on 3rd 7.0 5.4
4th Down Plays 1/1 0/0
Penalties 5 6
Penalty Yards 30 49
Avg. Drive Start OWN 23 OWN 31
Time Of Possession 26:16 33:44
Long Beach Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
34 Terrell 17 53 3.1 7 0
32 Grunow 10 16 1.6 4 0
36 Grafton 2 15 7.5 9 0
2 Urrutia 1 -2 -2.0 -2 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
2 Urrutia 30 16 167 5.5 21 1 2 0
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
34 Terrell 5 48 9.6 6 17 0
85 Patterson 4 48 12.0 8 18 0
83 McGarry 2 12 6.0 0 6 0
86 Edelman 2 14 7.0 3 12 1
87 Lore 1 13 13.0 2 13 0
81 Greco 1 21 21.0 7 21 0
32 Grunow 1 11 11.0 4 11 0
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
32 Grunow 1 15 15.0 0
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
24 Takahashi 2 45 22.5 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
6 Lightfoot 5 243 48.6 67 3
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
8 Swallow 0 0 0 1 1
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
97 Beardsley 11 3 0.0 0 0 0
26 Schrock 7 2 0.0 0 0 0
91 Roper 6 8 0.0 0 0 0
96 Kiernan 6 2 0.0 0 0 0
42 Miller 5 0 0.0 0 0 0
41 Hill 4 1 0.0 0 0 0
70 O'Connell 3 4 0.0 0 0 0
71 Lockett 3 1 0.0 0 0 0
27 Holt 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
75 Callender 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
92 Seidel 2 0 1.0 0 0 0
79 George 2 1 0.0 0 0 0
44 Silas 2 1 0.0 0 0 0
87 Lore 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
46 Roffmann 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
50 Sutton 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
20 Dyer 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
67 Walunas 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
85 Patterson 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
67 Walunas 0 1 0 0 1 0
36 Grafton 0 0 0 0 1 0
51 Brown 0 0 0 0 1 0
62 Price 0 0 0 0 1 0
69 Bullock 0 0 0 0 1 0
64 Davis 0 0 0 0 1 0
Tucson Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
42 Holliday 22 22 1.0 4 1
22 Bradley 17 136 8.0 50 0
4 Hogan 2 7 3.5 4 0
88 Ramirez 1 7 7.0 7 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
4 Hogan 24 18 200 8.3 20 1 0 1
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
89 Armitage 6 52 8.6 14 19 1
80 Higginbotham 4 61 15.2 10 19 0
22 Bradley 2 21 10.5 15 12 0
82 Torres 2 28 14.0 4 20 0
87 Sheehy 1 5 5.0 6 5 0
88 Ramirez 1 12 12.0 1 12 0
42 Holliday 1 3 3.0 0 3 0
30 Robbins 1 18 18.0 0 18 0
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
22 Bradley 3 36 12.0 0
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
85 Garcia 1 27 27.0 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
15 Winters 3 124 41.3 50 2
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
13 Castorena 2 4 47 2 2
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
52 Wash 6 2 0.0 0 0 0
95 Stoltzfus 6 2 0.0 0 0 0
90 Jarrard 5 4 0.0 0 0 0
31 Enoch 5 0 0.0 1 6 0
40 Biggs 4 1 0.0 0 0 0
55 Trujillo 3 1 0.0 0 0 0
32 Hartung 3 1 0.0 0 0 0
25 Minahan 3 1 0.0 0 0 0
75 Grier 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
70 Neubauer 2 3 0.0 0 0 0
46 Bloch 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
29 McCloskey 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
37 Rosenberry 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
73 Smith 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
22 Bradley 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
93 King 0 0 0.0 1 0 0
72 Bernard 0 1 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
61 Eaddy 0 0 0 0 3 1
78 Odum 0 0 0 0 3 0
63 Pitman 0 0 0 0 3 0
55 Trujillo 0 0 1 0 0 0
71 Franck 0 0 0 0 1 0
22 Bradley 1 0 0 0 0 0
64 Connell 0 0 0 0 1 0
Long Beach Drive Chart
Quar Began Poss From Plays Yards Result
1 11:39 5:32 OWN 5 12 56 Interception
2 11:54 4:25 OWN 40 6 21 Punt
2 5:57 1:47 OWN 47 3 -4 Punt
2 0:06 0:06 OWN 28 1 -2 Half
3 15:00 1:46 OWN 21 3 4 Interception
3 10:20 5:51 OWN 20 14 80 Touchdown
4 14:25 2:21 OWN 16 3 4 Punt
4 9:37 1:20 OWN 17 3 7 Punt
4 6:02 2:29 OWN 9 7 28 Punt
4 1:52 1:52 OWN 32 8 45 Game
Tucson Drive Chart
Quar Began Poss From Plays Yards Result
1 15:00 3:21 OWN 20 8 25 Punt
1 6:07 9:13 OWN 29 16 69 Field Goal
2 7:29 1:32 OWN 20 3 4 Punt
2 4:10 4:04 OWN 4 12 75 Missed FG
3 13:14 2:54 OPP 28 6 28 Touchdown
3 4:29 5:04 OWN 38 9 62 Touchdown
4 12:04 2:27 OPP 35 4 25 Missed FG
4 8:17 2:15 OWN 15 4 55 Field Goal
4 3:33 1:41 OWN 24 6 14 Punt
Long Beach Red Zone Profile
Visits TDs FGs
1 1 0
Tucson Red Zone Profile
Visits TDs FGs
5 2 1
Not exactly a pretty, or dominating, win, but I'll gladly take it. A 13-point win is good, but it probably should have been at least a 19 point win. Formerly rock-solid K Rubin Castorena has been nothing short of terrible this season, and his misery continued today with a 38-yd miss and a 25-yd blocked attempt. I don't know what's wrong with him, but it is safe to say that his job is in jeopardy if he doesn't get his head out of his ass.
Long Beach managed to deliver Drew Holliday his worst performance as a pro, stopping him for 22 yds on 22 carries (he did score a TD). That was an impressive feat to be sure, but they seemed to forget about Drew's backup, Darryl Bradley, who ran hog wild for 136 yds, had 2 catches for 21 yds, and returned 3 punts for 36 yds. He, and not "Colonel" Hogan, should have been the game MVP. Hogan certainly did his part, though with a very efficient performance.
But perhaps the real story of this game was our defense, who managed to keep an opponent under 10 points for the second straight game. Long Beach was limited to 2.7 ypc and forced veteran Josh Urrutia into a miserable 16/30 day with two interceptions. Nicely done, boys!
And to top it all off, we suffered no injuries.
Next week we have a HUGE game at home against Honolulu, and the week after that we travel to play Arizona. These two games will likely determine the trajectory of the rest of our season.