Hold wary of winless Iron

By John Bassetti

Expansion Milwaukee is seeking its first win in franchise history.

YOUNGSTOWN — At one time, Milwaukee was best known for its breweries, bowling and baseball, but now the Milwaukee Iron may hold that distinction.

That city’s af2 team invades Youngstown Saturday night to play the Mahoning Valley Thunder at the Chevy Centre.

The Iron (0-1) is looking for its first win in franchise history, while Mahoning Valley (1-0) hopes to wake up Sunday morning with its best start since 2007.

There’s a bit of intrigue brewing because two former Thunder players are with Milwaukee: LB Kellen Driscoll and QB Shane Adler.

Driscoll started all 16 games for Mahoning Valley in 2008 and led the team in forced fumbles with six. Also last year, Adler played in eight games in which he threw for 16 touchdowns, but also threw 16 interceptions.

Milwaukee’s opener was a 60-38 loss to the feared Iowa Barnstormers.

For the Iron, Adler was the starting signal-caller who threw for 77 yards and one touchdown, but replacement Tyler Donovan completed 12 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns,

Although Milwaukee has unknown qualities, Thunder coach Mike Hold chose not to designate the Iron an expansion team because of its known quantities.

“I guess they’re an unknown because they’re new, but they’re full of veterans and veterans on the coaching staff,” said Hold. “It’s just like playing any other team, it’s just a different name. Most [af2] teams have a lot of turnover every year, so that’s kind of the way this is; Milwaukee isn’t an expansion team, per se, because they’re veterans.”

Despite being a new franchise, Mahoning Valley can’t take the Iron lightly.

“We know that they have a lot of veterans and we know who they are and they’re talented and dangerous,” said Hold. “We’ve got to prepare for a very tough game and be prepared to play 60 minutes again.”

Hold likes the current one-game win wave the Thunder is riding, especially the way it won against Albany last Friday.

“We’ve got a high-character team. They have that never-give-up attitude because there was a point that looked mighty grim [when Mahoning Valley trailed by 11 points with 11 minutes to go], before we won by 10. That tells a lot about the character of this ball team.”

Although Albany lost, 44-34, the Firebirds had possession for 34 minutes, 23 seconds to the Thunder’s 25:37. Of that time, Albany controlled the ball 21:05 in the second half to Mahoning Valley’s 12:55.

But Hold didn’t interpret that negatively.

“Basically, what we did was slow down the game and didn’t allow them to score quick. Their offense was on the field, but we allowed them only two touchdowns in the second half.”

A downside to the victory was injuries to WR Rob Carey and FB Brenton Brady.

Brady will miss, possibly, four or five games after breaking his left hand. Brady was in street clothes during practice this week with his left hand packed in ice.

Carey’s right knee is more serious, but his status is uncertain until MRI results have been examined.

In other Thunder moves earlier this week, backup quarterback Rick Webster was released and QB Blake Powers, a rookie out of Indiana, was acquired. Powers was traded from the Spokane Shock for future considerations.

Former Howland High standout Maurice Smith was brought in to help at FB and possibly at LB.

The insertion of WR C.J. Brewer in the lineup for the first time will be a boost, although the receiving corps is down from five to four because of Carey’s demise.

bassetti@vindy.com