The quest for World Bowl XVII began early Friday morning with four wildcard games. There is a lot of action to cover in these 4 games, and it's getting late for me, so I'm breaking this into two parts. San Jose hung 69 points on Honolulu in the SaberCats second ever post season game, yet that's not a record. Birmingham hanging 77 on New Jersey in 1985 still stands, but SaberCats rookie WR Mark Hsu did set 2 records. Hsu caught 6 TD passes and amassed 404 yards, both single game highs in the playoffs. Memphis will have their hands full trying to cover him next week. Speaking of next week, Houston almost didn't get there as they trailed Chicago late in the 4th before the Gamblers pulled it out. Houston travels to Portland next in a matchup of the last 2 World Bowl Champions.
SaberCats 69 Hawaiians 26
San Jose and Honolulu hooked up for a third game this season after splitting their regular season games, and the scoreboard operator got quite a workout today. The SaberCats got the opening kickoff and needed all of two plays to take an early 7-0 lead on a 54 yard TD pass from Jake Plummer to rookie sensation Mark Hsu. Honolulu would tie the score later in the 1st on a 14 yard TD pass from Derek Henry to Brian Vizcarra. San Jose would retake the lead on Mark Hsu's second TD catch, a 34 yarder that would be the shortest of his record breaking 6 TDs today. Hsu deservedly is getting all the attention, but the SaberCats also ran for 240 yards today and they extended their first quarter lead to 21-7 on a 61 yard scoring run from Graham Peterson.
Early in the second quarter, Plummer and Hsu hooked up for a 3rd TD, a 38 yard pass to extend the lead to 28-7. Honolulu got a short TD run from Scott Stillings but Howard Bury missed the XP, so they trailed by 15 at this point. Rodney Richardson ran in a TD from 6 yards out and a FG by Bury made the halftime score 35-16 San Jose.
The second half didn't get any better for Honolulu as they promptly went three and out while San Jose got another TD run from Graham Peterson for a 42-16 lead. For the rest of the game, it was the Mark Hsu Show, as he caught 3 more touchdown passes covering 62, 75, and 79 yards respectively.
San Jose had 799 offensive yards and 3 players with huge games. WR Mark Hsu had a record setting 404 yards and 6 TDs among his 9 receptions and QB Jake Plummer threw for 559 yards with those 6 TD passes against 2 interceptions. RB Graham Peterson ran for 176 yards and 2 TDs, with an additional 50 receiving. Honolulu RB Scott Stillings ran for 59 yards and a TD while catching 7 for 115 yards while Allen Grant caught 5 for 111 yards. QB Derek Henry threw for 439 yards with 2 TDs and 2 INTs on 37/62 passing.
Gamblers 24 Blitz 19
Chicago went on a 12 play, 77 yard drive on their opening possession, but had to settle for a 39 yard Leon Rupe FG. Houston would fumble, allowing Chicago to have a short drive for another FG and an early 6-0 Blitz lead. The 1st qtr would end 6-0, though Houston took the lead early in the 2nd on a Tony Dean TD pass to Wesley Hull. The Gamblers would add 2 Vern McKinney FGs for a halftime lead of 13-6.
In the 3rd qtr, DE Charles Wallace sacked Chicago QB Ronald Brown in the end zone for a safety, and another McKinney FG gave Houston 18 unanswered points and an 18-6 lead heading into the 4th qtr. The lead could have been bigger, but a holding penalty on James Nation negated a would be Dean TD pass. Chicago RB Ronald Miller had a 3 yard TD run, cutting the Gamblers lead to 18-13. Dean would throw his 3rd INT on the next drive and the Blitz capitalized, getting a 30 yard Ronald Brown TD pass to Jared Hutton. That TD made the score 19-18 Chicago, and the Blitz went for 2 and failed. Houston then went on a 10 play drive that ended in a go ahead FG with less than 3 minutes to play. Chicago's next 3 plays were incomplete passes, leaving them with a 4th and 10 from their 25, down 2 with 2:38 to play. Rather than punt and hope for a stop, the Blitz went for it and failed. Houston would tack on another FG to take a 5 point lead and Chicago's last drive went nowhere.
Neither QB had a memorable game as Chicago's Ronald Brown finished 25/48, 245 yards with 1 TD and 2 INTs, while Tony Dean was 26/45, 226 yards, 1 TD and 3 INTs. Blitz WR Frank Stout caught 5 passes for 103 yards while the Gamblers were led by RB Lloyd Ellis and his 195 combined yards. Ellis rushed for 74 yards on 18 carries, adding 12 catches for 121 yards. Houston K Vern McKinney was 5 for 5 on FG attempts.
