Landover, Maryland, June 16, 2007
Five weeks ago the D.C. Divas (6-0) broke the New York Sharks (4-2) 48-game regular season winning streak, the longest in women’s football. The Sharks had a 14-0 lead at halftime but the Divas came back with 20 unanswered second half points. New York was not only looking to get revenge for their first regular season loss in 6 years but a victory would clinch the North Atlantic division title for the Sharks.
It was a warm muggy evening in this suburb of Washington, D.C. There was a large crowd on hand to cheer on the Divas as they looked to continue to remain unbeaten in their inaugural year on the IWFL.
Things quickly went sour for the visitors as the Sharks lost the coin toss and had to kick off to the Divas. The Divas quickly dipped into their bag of tricks and did a reverse on the kick-off. The Sharks were fooled and the Divas returned the ball 68 yards to the New York 11-yard line.
In their first meeting, the Sharks were short-handed on defense with many starters missing. In the return matchup the Sharks defense was fully stocked. Three times the Divas tried to run the ball in and got it only to the New York 5-yard line. Lacking a place kicker has not hampered the Divas all year and it didn’t hamper them on the next play. On fourth down they went for it and drove the ball down to the Sharks 1-yard line. At first it looked like the New York defense held as 2 referees said the Divas did not make it. The third referee came running in and signaled first down.
With a second opportunity, Rachelle Pecovsky-Bentley blasted in for the 1 yard to give the Divas the early lead in less than 5 minutes of the game. LaShawn Foust ran in for the 2-point conversion to put D.C. ahead 8-0.
After the ensuing kick-off, the Divas defense continued their dominance of the Sharks front line that began in the second half of their first meeting with New York. The Sharks could do absolutely nothing after 3 plays and were forced to punt.
Starting from their own 41-yard line, the Divas could do very little against the Sharks defense and they were forced to punt. Again the New York offense proved very ineffective against the Divas defense and the drive ended after 3 plays when Karen Mulligan was intercepted by the Divas’ Alison Fischer.
The turnover gave the Divas excellent field position at the New York 5-yard line. New York had their backs against the wall again but this time they prevailed and stopped D.C. at the 1-yard line.
For the rest of the first half, the game turned into a defensive battle. Both teams defense shutting down the other. The Divas defense faring a bit better as they limited New York to only 2 first downs the whole half and intercepted Mulligan again late in the half.
In some ways the Sharks were lucky to start the second half being down by only 8 points as the offense was held to only 34 yards. Then again the defense was playing spectacularly and if not for the long kick-off return the game might still have been scoreless.
At the beginning of the second half, Adrienne Smith came in to play quarterback for the Sharks and it proved no different as she was immediately intercepted by the Divas and D.C. had the ball on the New York 39-yard line. The Divas opened up their offense a bit and started throwing short passes. The Sharks did not adjust and the Divas were back on the scoreboard. The score play was a pass to Tara Stephenson for a 7 yard touchdown. The 2-point conversion failed and Divas were up 14-0 with 10:36 left in the game.
There was still plenty of time left in the game, but New York’s offense had better get going soon. And it looked like they would. After a good return of the kick-off by Jen Blum, the Sharks started their drive from their own 41-yard line. Given some time in the pocket, Mulligan was able to hit Christina Pagan for a big 20 yard gain. She connected with Pagan again for a 6 yard gain and the Sharks were threatening at the Divas 31-yard line. But disaster struck on a pitchout play as running back Gabrielle Nazaire fumbled the ball and D.C. recovered the ball.
That was the last time that New York threatened to score in the game. The Sharks defense continued to stymie the Divas offense but with time running short, New York was forced to pass and D.C. knew it. They were able to keep the Sharks at bay and defensive back Kathryn Hemlock put the icing on the cake as she intercepted Mulligan and returned it for a 21-yard touchdown.
It was a tough loss for New York. The defense proved to be tough but the offense just could not get it going all night. For the second straight outing, the Divas’ secondary feasted on Shark quarterbacks with another 4-interception game.
The Sharks magic number remains at 1 as the New England Intensity defeated the Manchester Freedom, 24-15. With 2 games left to play, any Sharks win or and Intensity loss will give New York a playoff berth.
Next week the Sharks will host the Southern Maine Rebels at Sharks Field at the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn. Kick-off is at 4pm (EDT), but if you can not make it the end of Flatbush Avenue, you can still follow all the hard hitting action as Pat Brown and Dave Maxwell will describe all of the action live to you on the official flagship station for New York Sharks Football, WFNradio.com – the Women’s Football Network. The broadcast will start at 3:45pm.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Sharks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D.C. Divas | 8 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 22 |
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
DC – (11:47) Pecovsky-Bentley 1 yard run (Foust run)
Third Quarter
DC – (10:36) Stephenson 7 yard pass from Hamlin (run failed)
Fourth Quarter
DC – (07:44) Hemlock 21 yard interception return (Pecovsky-Bentley run)