Blizzard overwhelms Thunder


Green Bay, WI. – The Mahoning Valley Thunder turned the ball over on the second snap from scrimmage and never recovered, falling behind 14-0 in the opening stanza before dropping their tenth game of the season by a score of 69-27. A Melvin Matlock 58 yard kick return for a score provided a late first quarter spark for the Thunder, but turnovers proved to be too much to overcome. In all Mahoning Valley turned the ball over three times including twice in the first half. The Thunder generated just six second half points. Reigning af2 Offensive Player of the Week Clenton Rafe continued to shine, the Thunder Wide Receiver hauled scored two more times giving him 13 touchdown receptions in the past three games.

Blizzard Quarterback Collin Drafts was nearly flawless. In his sixth start, the signal caller out of Charleston Southern University threw for four scores in just over two quarters of work and was not intercepted. Green Bay took a 38-21 lead into halftime and never looked back. Drafts wasted no time engineering a Blizzard scoring drive to open the third quarter, connecting with Tony Grissinger-Hill to extend the Green Bay lead to 24 points. Green Bay’s offense was never stopped, the Blizzard scored on all eleven of their possessions, before running the clock out on the final snap of the game. Shane Adler made his fifth start of the season for Mahoning Valley and failed to ignite the offense. Adler passed for two touchdowns and was intercepted twice. Mahoning Valley’s John Tackmann added to his team leading total of rushing touchdowns. The Linebacker/Quarterback found the end zone in the first quarter for his 12th rushing score on the season. Mahoning Valley returns home next Friday to host the Louisville Fire.