Houston Gamblers 38 Baltimore Stars 24
The last decade of USFL/WFL football has been dominated by two teams, the Memphis Showboats and Houston Gamblers. Houston defeated Baltimore 38-24 in front of 80,126 fans at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida to win their 4th World Bowl, all in the last 7 seasons. That ties them with the Memphis Showboats for the most in league history.
Houston got the ball to start the game and the Gamblers drove the length of the field in 7 plays, capping it off with a 33 yard TD run by Wesley Hull for the early 7-0 lead. Baltimore went three and out their first drive and the Gamblers struck again 6 plays later. Tony Dean found Kevin Leech in the flat and 42 yards later the lead was stretched to 14-0. The Stars would not go down without a fight however, as Jon Snow found Mark Numbers for a 38 yard TD to slice the lead in half.
The first quarter would end with the score 14-7 Houston and we had a kicking exhibition in the second. First, Daniel McCormack connected from 40, giving the Gamblers a 17-7 lead. Baltimore's Fred Boyce would make it 17-10 with a 19 yard chipshot, then McCormack extended the lead to 20-10 with a 50 yarder.
The 3rd quarter was pretty much exactly like the 2nd, a kicking exhibition. Houston's McCormack has an 86.7% career success rate from 50+ regular/postseason combined, and he connected on a 54 yard attempt for a 23-10 lead. Fred Boyce connected on another short FG, cutting the lead to 23-13. McCormack then capped off the 3rd qtr scoring with a 43 yard FG and a 26-13 lead entering the final 15 minutes.
Nearly half of the 4th went by before Fred Boyce made another FG. The 39 yarder cut the Houston lead to 10 points, but the Gamblers struck quickly. Houston needed just 2 plays to get down to the Baltimore 12, and Tony Dean took it from there. The Dean-Skeen connection gave the Gamblers a 17 point lead but there were still well over 6 minutes left and the Stars can score just as quickly as Houston. Baltimore did score a TD on their next drive as Jon Snow found Justin Coffey for a 9 yard score. Knob Creek caught the 2 point conversion to cut the lead to 33-24 with about 4 minutes remaining. The ensuing onside kick failed, then Daniel McCormack added another 54 yard FG for our final score of 36-24.
For Baltimore, Jon Snow completed 26/43 for 284 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT, and was sacked 4 times. Irvin Balzer got 2 of those 4 sacks for the Houston defense while John Rogers picked off 2 passes. Baltimore RB Mark Numbers combined for 178 yards with a TD while Knob Creek had 125 yards.
World Bowl MVP Tony Dean completed 25/33 for 365 yards 2 TD and 2 INT. The Gamblers OL kept the Stars defense off of Dean all game long, allowing zero sacks. RB Ryan Dearing had a combined 161 yards while fellow RB Wesley Hull combined for 134 and a TD.
