Talons gouge Thunder for 79

Mahoning Valley trailed 27-14 at halftime before losing by 34 points in Tulsa.

By ERIC BAILEY

Special to the Vindicator

TULSA, Okla. — Mahoning Valley’s road woes continued in northeastern Oklahoma on Saturday night.

The Thunder’s first road trip of 2009 ended with a 79-35 loss to the Tulsa Talons before 6,305 fans at the BOK Center.

Dating to 2007, it was the 13th consecutive setback away from home for the Thunder, which dropped to 1-2 on the season.

Turnovers spelled doom for the Thunder on this evening. Mahoning Valley had four interceptions and two lost fumbles against an opportunistic Tulsa defense.

“You can’t win in this league turning the football over,” Thunder coach Mike Hold said.

An ugly set of team records were broke or tied by Mahoning Valley.

The 44-point loss was the worst in Mahoning Valley’s three-year af2 history, dating to last season’s 69-28 setback at Green Bay.

The 79 points allowed matched a franchise high. The Thunder gave up 79 in a home loss to Manchester last season.

Things unraveled quickly for Mahoning. Three turnovers and an empty possession saw the Thunder trailing 27-7 with 6:14 left in the second quarter.

It didn’t get better after halftime. Mahoning gave up an interception and a fumble for touchdowns on its opening two possessions to seal the loss.

Mahoning Valley’s Davon Vinson had a rough game. The quarterback tossed two interceptions, had a pitch fumbled and suffered a big mental lapse right before halftime. His evening ended after his third-quarter pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

“We have had six turnovers at that [quarterback] position in the first two games — four fumbles and two picks,” Hold said. “You look at the score at halftime [27-14] and we had four [defensive stops] at halftime.

“Against that team, you expect to be winning at halftime with those stops, but it doesn’t happen when you turn it over three times,” Hold said.

The Thunder trailed 27-14 at halftime, but the deficit could have been much more or maybe even a little less.

Mahoning Valley’s defense had a pair of huge first-half stops against the high-powered Talons. On separate possessions, Tulsa drove to the Thunder’s 1-yard line, but on both instances the home team couldn’t put points on the board.

Early turnovers forced the Mahoning Valley to play catch up all evening.

Vinson, who only had two interceptions in his first two games, had a pair of first-quarter interceptions.

Tulsa recovered a bobbled pitch by Vinson deep in his own territory and quarterback Justin Allgood threw his fourth TD pass to his fourth different receiver to give the Talons the 27-7 advantage.

Mahoning put together a touchdown drive to stop the bleeding, with Vinson tossing a 16-yard pass to C.J. Brewer to make it 27-14 with 4:46 left before halftime.

After Tulsa (2-1) returned the ensuing kickoff to Mahoning’s 8-yard line, the Thunder stiffened and held the Talons from scoring.

Vinson marched the offense downfield and got the ball to the Tulsa 2.

The Thunder faced fourth-and-goal with 18 seconds left before the break.

Then a mental mistake strangled any hopes of putting points on the board. Vinson looked like he didn’t realize what down it was, and tried to kill the clock by spiking the ball. Tulsa led 27-14 at halftime.

Tulsa scored a touchdown on its opening possession of the second half and, after a touchdown and two-point conversion, boosted its lead to 35-14.

Vinson’s night was complete a short time later. After moving the ball to the Tulsa 9, his pass was intercepted by Jamar Ransom and returned 45 yards for a touchdown. It was Ransom’s second pick of the game.

Hold turned to backup quarterback Blake Powers midway through the third quarter and with his team trailing 43-14.

Powers didn’t fare much better. On his first possession, he was trying to avoid a heavy Talons rush and fumbled when he was sacked. Tulsa’s Michael Shack scooped up the loose ball and raced 26 yards untouched for a touchdown to give his team a 51-14 lead.

“We have to get better play out of that quarterback position,” Hold said. “We had guys open and we missed throws. You just can’t do that, especially against a team like Tulsa.”

Powers was able to throw a pair of touchdown passes coming off the bench.

Vinton ended just 15-of-30 passing for 181 yards. He had three interceptions and just one touchdown throw. He added a 3-yard touchdown run to open scoring and give the Thunder its only lead (7-0) of the game.

Powers ended 9-of-13 for 71 yards. He had two touchdown passes and a rushing score.

Allgood, who sat out the fourth quarter, was 17-of-22 for 214 yards. He tossed six touchdowns, including a trio of scoring strikes to Jeff Hughley. Talons backup quarterback Jimmy Welker threw two scoring passes.

Mahoning Valley returns to action on Saturday when it travels to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.