Thunder players playing for pride

By John Kovach

The playoffs aren’t possible, but Coach Mike Hold said they’ll still play hard.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning Valley Thunder have no chance of making the af2 playoffs.

Even if Mahoning Valley (3-10) would win its last three games of the season, starting with Saturday’s contest at the Manchester Wolves, and the several other contending teams in the American Conference would lose their final three outings, the Thunder still would fall short of making the playoffs.

Only the top four teams in the American Conference — the three divisional winners plus the team with the next best overall record — qualify for the playoffs.

The Wilkes Barre/Scranton Pioneers (11-2) hold first place ahead of the Wolves (6-7) in the East Division, followed by the Albany Conquest (4-9) and the Thunder.

So since the Thunder are out of the title picture, they have to find some other incentive to win at Manchester Saturday, and at Wilkes Barre/Scranton July 19 and then at home against the Green Bay Blizzard July 26 in the season finale.

The Wolves will be on a mission Saturday against the Thunder: They need to win to continue with even a slim chance of making the playoffs.

But coach Mike Hold of the Thunder said that his players, who are coming off their second bye week of the season after a 42-41 win over the Louisville Fire at home June 27, don’t require special incentives to try to play their best in a game.

“Obviously, the playoffs are not an incentive [for us now]. But these guys are here for different reasons, one of them is to move up [in their careers], so they have to continue to play tough as they have been,” said Hold.

“I am not concerned that we have to provide some incentive for them. They are going to play tough for personal reasons [besides] team reasons.”

Hold praised the Thunder defense which saved the win over Louisville that snapped a three-game losing streak.

To preserve that win, defensive end Mike Lane broke through the line to block an extra point kick attempt with 8.6 seconds for the one-point winning margin.

“We did a good job on defense and put a lot of pressure on them, especially after the half,” said Hold.

But now the Thunder have to hope that their defense can limit the opposing teams’ scoring in the final three games, to give the offense a chance to put enough points on the board to win.

“That’s the key to every game,” said Hold.

One of the leaders in the Thunder defense has been Royce Morgan, who set two team defensive records for the locals against Louisville. He had a team-record 3 1‚Ñ2 sacks to give him a team-record 12 for the season to break Anton Ceaser’s record of 11 set last year.

Morgan leads the team in sacks with 11 1‚Ñ2 for 65 yards followed by Kellen Driscoll with 8 for 42 yards.

Hold also said that the offense, especially quarterback Shane Adler, did a decent job against Louisville.

“We turned the ball over a couple of times, but we weren’t turnover-crazy,” said Hold, emphasizing that “the key to success for the next three games is not turning the ball over.”

Adler again will start at quarterback again for the Thunder. He completed 11-of-23 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions against Louisville, and also ran for a 1-yard TD .

One of Adler’s top targets will be Quorey Payne, who made his debut at wide receiver against the Fire and caught six passes for 120 yards, including a 35-yard TD toss from Adler.

Hold said the team may look at some other players this week.

“We got a couple guys coming in this week but we don’t know how they will do and if they will get signed,” said Hold. “We will take look at them at different positions.”

kovach@vindy.com