Thunder stunned late — again

By John Kovach

The Horsemen galloped away with a 41-35 victory.

YOUNGSTOWN— For the second time in four games, the Mahoning Valley Thunder lost on a pass at the buzzer.

In the second game of the season on April 5 at the Chevrolet Centre, DeMarcus Mathes caught what looked to be the game-winning pass at the buzzer, but he was ruled out of bounds, giving the win to the Manchester Wolves, 45-39.

Friday night at the Chevrolet Centre, another potential victory was snatched from the hands of the Thunder, which had a 35-34 lead over the Lexington (Ky.) Horsemen with just seconds left and the Horsemen with the ball at its 18-yard line.

Here’s what happened: Quarterback Eddie Eviston of the Horsemen found receiver and longtime teammate Chad Spencer open for the winning TD on a 32-yard toss as time expired. Douglas Daniels added the placement to enable the Horsemen to sink the Thunder, 41-35, in a non-divisional arenafootball2 league game before an announced attendance of 3,408 fans.

The Thunder fell to 1-3 while Lexington is 3-1.

It was Eviston’s fourth TD pass of the game — three of the throws going to Spencer, the two others covering 8 and 7 yards — and spoiled the Thunder’s comeback.

The Thunder’s rally was fueled by quarterback Josh Swogger’s 7-yard TD pass to new team addition Clenton Rafe, and Derek Schorejs’ extra-point kick, that gave the Thunder the 35-34 lead with 1:15 remaining.

It was Rafe’s second TD catch of the game. Schorejs, who kicked for the Thunder last year, recently rejoined to team to replace Rick Ziska.

Swogger, who is nursing an ankle injury and yielded his starting role to Mike Schneider, had just entered the game as a replacement for Schneider, who was injured and left the field. Schneider threw three TD passes, two to Henry Tolbert covering 9 and 21 yards and the other to Rafe for 28 yards.

Spencer and Eviston, who were teammates for two seasons at Georgetown (Ky.) College and the past four years for the Horsemen, lauded each other on the winning scoring pass.

“It was a perfect trajectory. I didn’t even have to jump. It was right in the breadbasket,” said Spencer who is 6-feet-4 and 270 pounds.

“I ran out 10 yards, stopped and waited for [Eviston’s] pump and then took off for the end zone straight to the corner. The only guy guarding me was No. 11 [Brian Majors]. [I think he] was a reserve. It was man-to-man coverage. That even surprised me”

Spencer said that he and Eviston know each other well because of their longtime and familiar QB-receiver relationship.

“He knows what I am going to do before I do. I’m making decisions on the run and he’s reading the defense,” Spencer said.

Eviston (6-3, 235) explained the winning play.

“[Spencer] went 10 yards, stopped and headed for the end zone,” Eviston said. “Chad is a big boy. He’s tall and 300 pounds. I don’t know if he even jumped for it. He caught it then ran one yard [for the winning TD].”

Eviston finished with 188 yards in the air on 15-for-28 with no interceptions, while Spencer had with six catches for 88 yards.

Schneider, who suffered a concussion late in the game and yielded to Swogger, finished with 176 yards in the air on 18-for-36 and two interceptions, while Tolbert and Mathes led the receivers with seven catches for 68 and 49 yards, respectively. Majors added six catches for 51 yards.

The Thunder had built a 28-14 lead and was ahead by 28-21 near the end of first half, but they failed to score near the goal on a run because of a fumble and blew a chance to go ahead by two scores.

Lexington tied the game at 28-28 in the third quarter on William Mulder’s 8-yard run with fumble and Daniels’ kick. The Horsemen were threatening to score again later in that period, but the fumbled near the Thunder goal and the Thunder recovered at their 5 with the score still 28-28.

Lexington missed another scoring chance when Daniels missed a field goal attempt at about 12:00 of the fourth when ball hit a goal post and then bounced back, and the Horsemen got possession at the 7.

They scored from there on a 7-yard pass from Eviston to Spencer to take lead after pass failed, 34-28.

kovach@vindy.com