For the first eight minutes of the third quarter, the Storm exploded on both sides of the ball at roughly the same time.
The cooperative efforts from the offense and defense turned a close game into a conference title for the Storm, who defeated Wichita 52-34 on Saturday night at the Arena.
The defense that couldn't seem to come up with the right plan in the first half held Wichita to a pair of late meaningless touchdowns in the second half. Third-down plays that were going for first downs nearly every single time in the first half went nowhere in the second for the Wild.
"We weren't quite so emotional before the plays in the second half," defensive lineman Leif Murphy said. "We said hey, let's settle down here and do what we're supposed to do. The defensive line got into a zone in the second half - personally I was definitely in a zone. It was like everything I tried worked. It's been a while since I felt that way. And every time I wasn't getting after the quarterback someone else was."
Next up for the Storm is a return to the United Bowl against the Billings Outlaws next Saturday in Montana.
The Storm won the indoor league championship four times in a row from 2005-08.
"It's a long bus ride," Murphy said. "I think the last time we made it we watched 15 different movies."
Obviously if this Storm season was a movie, the title would be "A Season of Redemption." The theme the team's marketers branded the 2010 campaign is still alive thanks to a late-season push on the field. The Storm have now won five in a row since losing to Billings on June 12. Included in that package are three consecutive playoff wins at the Arena.
"It wasn't just a slogan for us," Storm quarterback Terrance Bryant said. "In the offseason our owner Todd Tryon told us to do whatever we had to do to get ready for this year. 'A Season of Redemption' was something everyone in the organization embraced from the beginning of the year."
Of the three win-or-go-home games this month, the win over the Wild - which had three tight games with the Storm during the regular season - was the best example of the kind of efforts that were commonplace during the squad's string of titles.
"We've had games this year where the offense or the defense was playing well, but tonight in the second half they were feeding off each other," Storm coach Kurtiss Riggs said. "It was a very complete second half. In the third quarter, we put them away."
The Storm took its first two-score lead with a James Jones' 2-yard touchdown with 12:09 to go in the third quarter that came after Rachman Crable recovered a fumble at the Wild 15.
With the defense stopping a pair of Wichita possessions, the Storm made it 42-21 with a James Terry touchdown run around the left side.
"All the credit goes to the offensive line," said running back James Jones, who ran a surprising 22 times for 67 yards and three touchdowns. "They gave us an opportunity to take control of the game. The defensive line was playing the same way."
Leading 45-21, the Storm stopped the Wild on four consecutive plays from inside the 2, ending Wichita's last meaningful possession by stopping Wooten on a keeper with 7:14 to play.
The first half was not so convincingly executed. The two-touchdown lead that would have calmed everyone down a little bit in the first half never came about, though the Storm whiffed a few times on opportunities to do so.
With 8:50 to play in the second quarter, running back Jones fumbled on the Wild 2, but the ball rolled into the endzone and James Terry gathered it in for a lucky break of a touchdown to give the Storm a 21-14 lead.
The Wild answered quickly - such would be the case most of the time - with a Dixie Wooten pass to Clinton Solomon to tie the score two minutes later.
After taking a 28-21 lead on a pitch to Jones around the right side, the Storm stopped the next Wild drive, thanks to Mark Blackburn deflecting a Wooten pass on fourth down with 32 seconds left.
Aided by a Wild personal foul, the Storm had the ball inside the Wild 5 with less than 10 seconds left, but couldn't punch the ball in. A Rob Zarrilli field goal missed wide and the Storm went into intermission with the lead, but not the lead they could have had.
It didn't much matter after the stomping the Storm put on the Wild in the third quarter.
"Other teams have goals of getting to the playoffs or getting to the title game, here we have expectations," Riggs said. "We expect to be here. We expected to be there last year and we had the off-the-field problems. The guys have done a great job of battling through everything this year - it's a long season. Now we have one more game."
Article Written By: Mick Garry – Sioux Falls Argus Leader
