Pittsburgh Power no longer in Command; P.J. Berry with another stellar performance
Down 37-34 quarterback Derek Cassidy dropped back to find wide receiver P.J. Berry for a touchdown to give the Pittsburgh Power the lead, or at least that was supposed to happen. Instead a referee close to the play ruled the ball incomplete and kicker Geoff Boyer missed a field goal later in the drive.
The Power would go on to lose 43-37.
“I knew he caught the ball,” Seigfried said regarding the ruling. “My understanding of what happened was the extra balls from the ball boys were up on the other side of the wall and he came down with the ball, caught the ball, still had it and stood up with it and it was a touchdown. It was a bad call.”
The Power now fall to 2-8 on the season and hand the Command their first win of the season.
Seigfried did not see any real positives during his post game press conference.
“Not really, maybe the kicker making extra points,” Seigfried said. “We let a team that didn’t have a win come in and beat us.”
A positive though may have been Berry, who despite the controversial drop, did catch 10 passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns. His first touchdown came in the first quarter gave the Power a 7-0 lead, one of two leads they had all game.
Perhaps his biggest play though was in the third when he was inserted into the defense on a fourth down play, and he made a pivotal interception.
This provided a short-term spark, as the Power scored on the next drive as Mike Washington caught one of his two touchdowns to give the Power a 34-27 lead.
“Anytime you get to play a position you normally don’t play,” Berry said. “There was a little spark there, but we joke all of the time in practice that ‘I can play DB, and they can play wide receiver’, but it’s very rare that you actually have a chance to do it. Ricky [Gary] went down, so they needed another DB.”
Bryan Randall got the start in this game, however the Power fumbled the ball numerous times once again and lost two of them. Randall has been the guilty party of many of these fumbles and his fumble with 11:04 left in the second quarter was all Seigfried needed to see. He was relieved for Cassidy who played the remainder of the game.
At the end of the game the Command recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock to assure them of the victory.
“It’s a tough one,” Seigfried said of the loss. “I think we have some guys in that locker room that are content just being on the team and that needs to change. It was just a bad day all the way around.”
Game Notes:
It was Kids Day at CONSOL Energy Center and there was an announced attendance of 5,062.
The Power are on a bye week this week and will face the Arizona Rattlers who have a 7-3 record. The Rattlers are the runner ups last season and had the best regular season record. They have the fourth best passing attack in the AFL.
The next home game for the Power will be Saturday June 16 against the Milwaukee Mustangs. There will be a monkey rodeo at the half. Kickoff will be 7:30 PM at CONSOL Energy Center. Tickets start $15 and $10 for Student Rush.
Kicker Geoff Butler may be the short-term answer at kicker. While he was 1-2 in field goals, he did make four out of his five extra points [one was blocked]. This is the most efficient a Power kicker has been since the departure of Collin Wagner.
The fact that Seigfried showed up for the game was somewhat miraculous. Seigfried was in a hospital all day with food poisoning and showed up at 6 PM, 90 minutes before kickoff. Defensive coordinator Derek Stingley had an increased role in the game according to Seigfried.
Scoring summary Pittsburgh Power vs Kansas City Command 5/19/12
First Quarter:
Power: Berry 4 yard pass from Randall (Boyer kick is good) 7-0 9:30
Command: Lee 5 yard run (Wilhoit kick is good) 7-7 5:08
Command: Robinson 5 yard pass from Gutierrez (Wilhoit kick is good) 14-7 4:01
Power: Washington 12 yard pass from Randall (Boyer kick blocked) 14-13 0:45
Command: Parks 27 yard pass from Gutierrez (Wilhoit kick no good) 20-13 0:00
Second Quarter:
Power: Berry 24 yard pass from Cassidy (Boyer kick good) 20-20 7:44
Command: Gutierrez 3 yard run (Wilhoit kick is good) 27-20 3:43
Third Quarter:
Power: Cassidy 1 yard run (Boyer kick good) 27-27 11:41
Power: Washington 18 yard pass from Cassidy (Boyer kick good) 34-27 4:07
Command: Chambers 8 yard pass from Gutierrez (Wilhoit kick good) 34-34 0:52
Fourth Quarter:
Command: Wilhoit 40 yard field goal 37-34 9:55
Command: Robinson 20 yard pass from Gutierrez (Wilhoit kick no good) 43-34 1:22
Power: Boyer 32 yard field goal 43-37 0:19
Game Awards:
Russell Athletic Offensive Player of the Game: Matt Gutierrez – KC
Riddell Defensive Player of the Game: Bradly Chavez – KC
JLS Ironman: P.J. Berry – PIT
AFL Playmaker of the Game: P.J. Berry – PIT
Cutters Catch of the Game: Xavier Lee against the boards – KC
Spalding Highlight of the Game: P.J. Berry’s interception – PIT
National Guard MVP: Matt Gutierrez – KC
American Conference- East Division Standings
Philadelphia Soul 7-3
Cleveland Gladiators 6-3
Milwaukee Mustangs 3-6
Pittsburgh Power 2-8