Thunder trying to move forward

By Joe Scalzo

But the final play from Saturday’s loss is still stinging.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning Valley Thunder coach Mike Hold still isn’t happy about the last call of Saturday’s game, but he’s not going to dwell on it.

“We can whine and cry as much as much as we want,” said Hold, whose team lost when a possible game-tying touchdown catch was overturned on the game’s final play. “Regardless of whether it was the right call or it was a touchdown, it’s still a loss.

“The only thing we can do is put it behind us.”

Mahoning Valley trailed Manchester 45-39 with less than three seconds remaining Saturday when quarterback Josh Swogger found receiver DeMarcus Mathes in the back corner of the end zone. Mathes made a leaping grab over two defenders and landed on the top of the wall, where he was hit by the Wolves’ defenders. After initially ruling it a touchdown, the officials huddled for several minutes and ruled Mathes hadn’t made enough of an effort to get off the wall and get one foot inbounds.

“It’s a disappointing feeling because we feel like we should be 2-0 at this point,” Hold said. “But we’re not. So we’ve got to figure out how to be 2-1.”

Hold turned in a report to the league asking them to review the play. But, even if the league agrees with Hold, the result cannot be overturned.

“The only thing we can get [from the league] is a, ‘Yes, you were right, it should have been a touchdown,’ ” Hold said. “We’re facing a good football team this week, so the last thing we want to do is waste any valuable preparation time worrying about it.”

The Thunder (1-1) will play their first road game of the season Friday against Wilkes Barre/Scranton (1-1), which beat Mahoning Valley twice last season and lost in last year’s af2 championship game.

Hold’s main concern right now is getting more consistent play from his team. Of the 23 players on his roster, 17 are rookies and five more have just one year of af2 experience.

“When you look at this roster, you see a lot of possibility,” Hold said. “We’ve just go to try to get the guys on both sides of the ball to play as a unit.

“Everybody faces that at this point. You don’t have an offseason, so there’s only so much you can do. We just have to work hard in practice every day to get better.”

So far, Mahoning Valley’s offense has lagged behind its defense. The Thunder’s defense had a few lapses and broken coverages Saturday — most notably on the game’s second-to-last series, when the Wolves scored a quick touchdown to take the lead for good — but the defense also has nine sacks through two games and forced two turnovers last weekend.

“They’ve shown flashes of excellence,” Hold said. “And there’s been three or four series in each game where you’re like, ‘What’s going on?’ ”

Offensively, Swogger has been up and down, which can be expected from a rookie. The good news is, he’s thrown eight touchdowns without an interception. The bad news is, he’s completing less than 50 percent of his passes.

Some of it is timing — Swogger is still adjusting to the speed of the game — and some of it is due to his receivers running the wrong routes, Hold said.

“It’s going to come,” Hold said.

One other issue is with kickoffs. Rick Ziska made a clutch field goal in the final minute Saturday to give the Thunder a brief lead, then followed it up with a kick out of bounds that gave the Wolves the ball at the 20. Hold wants to see Ziska hit the netting behind the end zone consistently.

“That’s the most important thing I look for in a kicker,” he said.

scalzo@vindy.com