Wolves hand Thunder 11th loss

By DANIEL WARNER

The Thunder fell behind, 26-0, after the first quarter and faltered, 53-27.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — The Manchester Wolves, led by quarterback James Pinkney and his six touchdown passes, scored early and often as they handed the Mahoning Valley Thunder its 11th loss of the season, 53-27, in front of 5,722 fans at the Verizon Wireless Center on Saturday night.

The Thunder (3-11) entered the evening looking for their first win against their divisional foe.

The Thunder have yet to beat the Wolves (7-7) in their two-year existence. Both teams came into the match-up sporting one-game winning streaks, with the Thunder looking to pick-up their first two-game winning streak of the season.

The game started off with a bang for the Wolves as Pinkney connected with Bradly Chavez for a 23-yard touchdown pass just over a minute into the first quarter.

Pinkney met with Daniel Oliphant on another 23-yard touchdown pass minutes later, making the score 13-0. Manchester went on to score another 13 points in the first to give them the 26-0 lead after one quarter of play.

The Thunder got on track in the second quarter as quarterback Shane Adler hooked up with Quorey Payne to get Mahoning Valley on the board. An Eric Schnatz extra point made the score 26-7.

After almost eight scoreless minutes, Manchester and Pinkney struck again, adding another touchdown pass to his resume. Adler and Payne became the hot connection as they hooked up for another touchdown as the second quarter winded to an end. With another Schnatz extra point the score became 33-14 Wolves.

The third quarter was a draw, with each team scoring six points. For Mahoning Valley it was Alder and Payne connecting on yet another score for the Thunder. The extra point attempt by Schnatz was no good. Pinkney notched his fifth touchdown pass, and after a blocked extra point, the score after three quarters was 39-20.

Manchester closed out what was a critical playoff-race game with a strong fourth quarter.

Pinkney connected with Keith Stokes for his sixth touchdown pass. Carlton Brown added six points with an interception of an Adler pass that he returned for 24 yards into the end zone. With under a minute left, Mahoning Valley was able to muster up one last touchdown from the legs of John Tackmann, a 1-yard run. Melvin Matlock set-up that touchdown with a 53-yard kickoff return, getting the team to the 1-yard line.

“We got out-played, out-hustled; we were bad,” said Thunder coach Mike Hold. “I give them credit because they’re a good football team, but we just got whooped.

“It’s as simple as that.”

Wolves quarterback James Pinkney threw six touchdowns and added 238 yards passing.

Adler went 14-for-38, producing three scores on 170 yards.

Payne led all receivers with three touchdown catches, tallying up 97 yards on six receptions.

Payne was also voted as the Wide Receiver of the Game by the media.

The Thunder have two games left this season. They travel to play the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers next week.