TUFF Week 14
While it wasn’t a lot of snow falling in Pittsburgh, it seemed to be
enough to confuse the visiting Islanders, and enough to help the
Pitt Bulls shellac Honolulu 26-3 in a meeting between TUFF’s two
titans in S013. While the game didn’t matter much in the standings
with both teams having essentially wrapped up the top seeds in
each of their respective conferences coming in, neither team
seemed to play that way. Both teams brought out their key
starters, though only Pittsburgh’s seemed to be all that effective.
Honolulu QB Mars Calixtro and the offense couldn’t handle the
snow or the Pitt Bulls defense, managing only 216 net yards and a
field goal on the scoreboard. Calixtro himself only completed 16 of
46 passes for 207 yards and 2 Ints. Pittsburgh QB Joe Monday
wasn’t much better but his 22 yard scoring strike to TE Jason
Zink put the Bulls in front 13-3 in the 3rd        Quarter. The win
officially sealed the home field for Pittsburgh throughout the
playoffs.

The Wisconsin Wreckers continued their red hot streak with a 35-
12 win over the Seattle Monsoon. QB Howard Gatling threw four
touchdown passes to four different receivers to extend the
Wreckers’ winning streak to six games.

The British Columbia Lynx withstood a stiff challenge from the
New York Vendetta to hold on to a 23-17 win. QB Justin Rivera
tossed a pair of touchdown passes and the Lynx raised their
record to 8-6. BC is locked into the 4th playoff seed in the
Continental Conference.
Player of the Week:        

RB Aaron Johnson          38 rush   183 yards 1 TD
Los Angeles Paladins                     
Johnson today provided the spark and the drive that the offense seemed to have
lacked all season long. While the Paladins struggled to find the endzone with much
regularity, Johnson’s running chewed up the clock and wore down the Smoke
defense.
Team of the Week:   

Baltimore Battalion
Utterly demolished the Attack 44-6 in Boston and with it likely laid claim to the United’
s 3rd seed, thus avoiding the Pitt Bulls in the playoff’s first round.
Looking Ahead      

Pittsburgh Bulls (13-1) @ Wisconsin Wreckers (10-4)
The two hottest teams in TUFF face off. The Pitt Bulls don’t have much to play for but they didn’t this week when they pounded the Islanders either. Wisconsin
has strung together an impressive six game winning streak down the stretch.

Sacramento Vipers (11-3) @ Baltimore Battalion (10-4)
Very likely a playoff preview for the United’s first round, this one could set the tone for that game, should things line up as expected.

Honolulu Islanders (12-2) @ British Columbia Lynx (8-6)
These two teams will probably meet in the first round of the playoffs in Hawaii.
Archives
With both teams playing out the string in southern California, records
were forgotten between the bitter rival San Diego Smoke and Los
Angeles Paladins. The Smoke may be the ones who would like to forget
today in addition, as RB Aaron Johnson rushed for 183 yards and a TD
for Los Angeles, in a 31-7 runaway victory for the Paladins. K Shad
Hercman kicked 8 field goals in the game for LA.

While snow was falling in Chicago, the Skyline pulled out an ugly but
close win over the struggling Memphis Shock. QB Earl Smith connected
on a 2 yard scoring toss to Whorton to put Chicago in front 13-6
midway through the 4th Quarter. Memphis had a chance to tie the game
late, but QB Zoltan Zephyr was sacked on 4th Down at the Skyline 17
yardline with just over a minute remaining in the contest.

Finally the Miami Missiles seized control of what was a close game in
the 4th Quarter with the Cleveland Commandos. Miami led 19-16 early
in the 4th, but rallied for 16 unanswered points in the final quarter to seal
their fifth win of the season. RB Bobby Anderson rushed for 132 yards
and 1 TD in the win.