Cure for slump? Thunder victory

By John Kovach

A pair of close losses in April hurt the team’s confidence, said center Wally Sonnie.

YOUNGSTOWN — What will it take for the Mahoning Valley Thunder to break a five-game losing streak Saturday at the Lexington (Ky.) Horsemen at 7:30 p.m. in Rupp Arena in an af2 game?

Wally Sonnie, the Thunder’s center from the Ashland University who joined the team during last season and helped it recover from a losing slump, believes he has the answer.

“A win. That is basically it. A win will get the ball rolling and get everyone’s confidence back and things will fall into place,” said Sonnie (6-foot-2, 320 pounds), who lives in Chesterland near Cleveland and commutes to Youngstown.

Sonnie said close losses to the Horseman (41-35) April 18 and the Manchester Wolves (45-39) April 5, both at home, “took some winds out of our sails.”

And he said that the Thunder’s 77-47 loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers on Monday resulted from having a new quarterback (Shane Adler), who was unfamiliar with his receivers.

“We just have a young new quarterback and a new crop of wide receivers. Two of the three wide receivers were new. None of the three had worked with the quarterback last week,” said Sonnie, who has become a dependable anchor in the middle of the Thunder’s offensive line.

“We need some time to develop chemistry and confidence. Practice [Wednesday], offensively-speaking, went very well, and I think that this week we will turn it around.”

Sonnie, one of three down offensive lineman, has several main responsibilities at center from where each play starts, including identifying the blitzing linebacker, called the Mac.

He also has to make sure he gets the snap back to the quarterback, and block the nose guard on most plays.

But he doesn’t have to snap back the ball on extra-point and field-goal attempts.

“Kellen Driscoll does the long snaps for extra points and field goals. He is a lot better than me doing that,” said Sonnie, who played some center at Ashland but mostly was an offensive guard.

Sonnie believes the offensive line is doing its job protecting the quarterback, and is opening holes for ball carriers, especially fullback Tim Murphy.

“We have had a breakdown now and then but as a corps we are better than we were last year out front,” said Sonnie. “It doesn’t matter which three [offensive linemen] you put in there. We are better across the board.”

The other two starting linemen are guard Andre Bennett and tight end Mike Lane, while Jonathan Harper serves as a back-up.

Murphy almost broke the af2 single-game rushing record against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Monday night when he rushed for 94 yards in only seven carries, two of them going for scores. Sonnie said Murphy’s performance was a joint effort by the fullback and the offensive line.

“It’s a little bit of both. A lot of it was Tim. He is a good running back. He did it in college and knows how to run it effectively [from doing it] in college,” said Sonnie, who besides playing football also attends Kent State to complete his requirements for a college degree.

kovach@vindy.com