[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Let's not get too excited
Earnest Ashley's back to earth

Rendez-vous with Angel Henson, quite possibly the most talented quarterback in the league right now. We had the pleasure to face him in his own Frederick as our Merchantmen clashed with the Red Menace.

A couple of defended passes and an ineffective short pass on third and twenty gave us the ball quickly, although deep inside our own red zone after a holding penalty. The first attempt of the Earnest Ashley to find Ed Schulz deep down field, but after finding George Stuckey for 17 yards, the next toss was a 53-yarder to Schulz. A 16-yarder to Stuckey set us up for a goal line offense and on the third try, Ashley himself tricked the defense and ran it in for the 7-0 lead. After another three and out by our defense, we got the ball back near midfield, but solid pass defense from the home team forced us to punt it back. A tackle for a loss, a sack shared with Darien Fletcher and a blocked pass on consecutive plays by Richie Piotte gave us the ball back after the punt. We converted on third and 7, but were pushed back by a chop block penalty and eventually were to punt as well. The defenses had taken firm control of the game, making it more of a field position battle than an offensive fire power game that was perhaps to be expected.

The second quarter saw the Red Menace revert to a lot of runs to the left side of their line, but an illegal substitution penalty did them in and as Devon Farrell defended a pass on third and long, we quickly got possession. Earnest Ashley found Ed Schulz for 18 yards on the first play to break into Frederick territory and a neat third down toss to Clay Gaynor for 12 yards moved us into field goal range. A 14-yarder and a 10-yarder to George Stuckey then got us inside their 5-yard line. Bert Ta'Amu was held short on first down, but on second down we surprised their defense with a quick toss from Ashley to Schulz for the 14-0 lead.
All of a sudden, Angel Henson's arm looked all warmed up and he started finding his receivers for 11 yards here, 12 yards there, until the pass rush took over, with Richie Piotte making his first solo sack of the game, while Caiden Croyle repeated Henson's to the ground tossing on third down. Earnest Ashley then saw a 28-yard run called back due to a holding penalty and after the punt found ourselves setting up defense near midfield. Angel Henson found Luther Ruhl for 15 and 12 yards to get his team in field goal range just before the two-minute warning. The Merchantmen defense eventually stepped it up as Ernie Grant deflected a pass and the running attempt on third and long was quickly halted. After a 26-yard field goal, Frederick was still trailing 14-3. Bert Ta'Amu had the longest run so far with a 15-yarder, but we decided not to use any time outs to try to extend the lead before half time.

The second half basically started with Earnest Ashley finding Ed Schulz for a 25-yard gain, but from midfield Ashley failed to find Schulz on three straight plays and we ended up punting the ball. Frederick's Angel Henson looked ready to get his team back in into the game, finding a receiver for 21 yards, whilst his running back gained 12 yards to burst into our half of the field. Our defensive linemen crushed Henson's line when he tried to run on second down and a dropped pass on third down forced them to punt from our 36-yard line after all. But a quick three and out forced by the Frederick's stellar run defense, resulted in our defense being back on the field with the ball at midfield after their 20-yard punt return. Richie Piotte rushed Henson into a throwing the ball away on third and short, bringing the ball back to us. Earnest Ashley found Clay Gaynor on third and one as we tricked them to think we'd run the ball, but even the 14-yarder and 10-yarder to George Stuckey, followed by a 13-yarder to Clay Gaynor still kept us out of field goal range and after a touchback and a tremendous three and out, the third quarter was almost over, with no scores added, maintaining our 14-3 lead.

Fourth quarter then started with one of the biggest plays of the day as our punt returned Mark Perkins found plenty of room and gained 63 yards, getting tackled at the opposing 10-yard line. The opportunity to extend the lead was vanished when Earnest Ashley's third and goal toss into the end zone to Ed Schulz was picked off. The momentum shift was there as Angel Henson found his running back for a 30-yard gain to reach midfield. A 16-yard run in the next play then proved to be insufficient to get points on the scoreboard as we managed to force them to punt once again from our 36-yard line. Amidst Bert Ta'Amu's unsuccessful runs, Earnest Ashley showed the way with a 13-yard run. A 15-yard toss to Clay Gaynor on third and long, soon after followed by a 15-yarder to Ed Schulz were enough to set up a 44-yard field goal for a 17-3 lead. And things got even better for us on the kickoff return as Adam Harmon tackled forced the returner to fumble and his fellow cornerback Bryson Swafford recovered the ball. Four plays later, Dylan McMullen converted a 32-yarder to extend the lead to 20-3.
Frederick's other kickoff returner then got his team back into thinking the game wasn't over, bringing the ball the full 93 yards back for a touchdown and trimming their deficit to 20-10. After a quick three and out, Frederick got the ball back near midfield with just under 5 minutes to play. Angel Henson found a couple of his receivers for decent gains and after settling for a nice 51-yard field goal, we knew that a 20-13 lead wasn't easy to bring to the finish line. Earnest Ashley found Ed Schulz for 16 yards on third and long, helping the clock tick down to the last two minutes. But as we thought we were about to secure the victory, Ashley's throw to Schulz was picked off and returned to midfield. Angel Henson found a receiver for 22 yards, scrambled for 3 yards and at our 25-yard line, they looked ready to tie it up. Our pass rushers looked still fresh and Archie Exner broke up their second down play. On third down, our shutdown corner Ernie Grant got the better of their tight end, batting the ball away. On fourth down Jerome Shumway got through the line and as Henson tossed the ball away, we had it back with 48 seconds remaining. The Red Menace had to spend their time outs to stop our unsuccessful running plays, but a solid punt pinned them just outside their own red zone with 12 seconds remaining. A short toss to the tight end sealed the deal, he got tackled quickly and the game was over: Merchantmen win, 20-13!

Earnest Ashley crashed back to earth, completing just 22 of 49 passes for 284 yards (still a great figure, obviously), with 2 interceptions. He did throw and run for a score, which turned out to be the only two offensive touchdowns of the game. Ed Schulz had 8 receptions for 142 yards, while George Stuckey had 7 catches for 88 yards. Bert Ta'Amu was held to just 58 yards on 28 carries, oof.

Elsewhere across the league, the Gothenburg Giants beat the Chesapeake Chitterlings 27-14 and will play their third straight home game next. The Paris Musketeers were crushed 30-7 at the reigning NAC champions Williamsburg Colonials, while the Bordeaux Vineyards lost 20-16 at home against the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums.

European Division
1. Gothenburg 2-0
2. Maassluis 2-0
3. Bordeaux 0-2
4. Paris 0-2

Our next stop will be at the Rochester Razorbacks, who started the season with two closes losses.

Joining us there will be linebacker Preston Bradford, whom we acquired for a fourth round pick next draft from the Outer Banks Ospreys. The second year defender didn't seem to get a lot of playing time there and I see him as a suitable addition to our pass defense and good enough to play on running downs as well. With the decline and age of our linebackers group, some fresh blood is very welcome. I don't expect to see him play much in this game, but after our bye week we'll see how to get him involved.

To make a roster spot available, second-year quarterback Kelvin Everett will be released. Our third round project from last season will leave us barely into his second season with us. Our previous offensive coordinator wasn't to be taken serious on his assessment of Everett, but our current coordinator has no praise about him. He can sense the rush and scramble, he's smart, but he doesn't have the arm to succeed at this level of football. We never worried about his size, although he might have been better suited as a running back?

And that's it for today.
Two wins in a row to start the season. Last time we did that, we were 4-0 after week 5 of the 2093 season and still 5-1 after week 7. We won only 2 more games down the stretch and finished the season with a 7-8-1 record. And eventually it marked the end of Moe Sheldon's period as our starting quarterback. Sheldon hung around for two more seasons, but only in a backup role, mentoring our current quarterback Earnest Ashley. A player that so far this season gives us hope that we're finally back in to the race for the division title, but today his old turnover habits and struggles with completing passes returned. New game plan, old habits, or was today just an anomality? We're about to find out in the next game, or the 13 to 17 remaining this season...