Thunder pursuing elusive victory

The indoor football team has not won since the opening week of the af2 season.

Vindicator staff report

NILES — Chris MacKeown isn’t big on moral victories.

“There are no moral victories in pro football,” the Mahoning Valley Thunder coach said earlier this week as his af2 team prepared for Saturday’s American Conference East Division game in Albany.

“We have to get ourselves a win — for our own confidence, too,” said the man who has been on the job since May 26. “It would go a long way for us. I believe, once we get one win, it’ll snowball. We’ll get confidence and they’ll [wins] come.

The moral “victory” would have been an 11-point loss to the Milwaukee Iron on June 5.

“We shot ourselves in the foot early by turning the ball over,” MacKeown said of the Thunder, which pulled within 48-47 at the outset of the fourth period.

“We were right there in it,” the 40-year-old coach said. “It was basically tied up and, offensively, we didn’t score another point and they shut us out. It cost us the game. We let it slip away. We should have won that football game.”

MacKeown cited a fumbled snap early in the game, then a fumble after a reception early in the third quarter, then an interception late on a second down-and-goal play.

“We threw it up for grabs. We should have never thrown the ball. We still had two downs and could have scored.”

Mahoning Valley also bumbled a potential score during the one-minute drill.

“We messed that up,” MacKeown said. “C.J. Brewer didn’t get out of bounds when he should have and De’Tario Frederick got out of bounds too early.

“He could have easily gotten the first down, but he got out of bounds too early and we should have gotten four more plays instead of one.”

In the first instance, the Thunder needed to stop the clock, but Brewer was tackled in bounds, so MacKeown had to waste a timeout.

On third down, Frederick caught a pass, but went out of bounds and stopped the clock instead of getting a first down.

“He should have gotten the first down for us which would have given us first-and-goal inside the 5, instead of fourth and 2 at the 8,” MacKeown said.

The Thunder last led in a game, 7-0, against the Manchester Wolves on May 22.

MacKeown gave credit to quarterback Davon Vinson’s overall play against the Iron, but also left room for criticism of the offense.

“We’re still dropping too many balls,” MacKeown said. “We had a touchdown, missed on some things and were late throwing at times and missed on some things down by the goalline. One of our receivers [Brewer] dropped a touchdown pass just before we threw the interception. We had our opportunities, but let it slip through our fingertips.

“But, offensively, I’m impressed with how hard the guys are working and we do have a good offensive system. We just have to execute it better, catch the ball and make good decisions from quarterback spot.”

Rookie QB Brad Roach arrived in Youngstown this week.

“He worked out for us in Maryland when the Crush had an East Coast tryout,” MacKeown said of his knowledge of Roach when MacKeown was an assistant with the AFL Colorado Crush team.

“He had a good feel for the timing of the game and threw accurately,” MacKeown said of his latest impression of the 6-6 signalcaller from Catawba (N.C.) College. “Our offense has his head spinning trying to make reads, but I still see those skills. I still see accurate passes, I still see a guy who understands the timing of this league and isn’t that bad with his touch.”

As head coach, this will be MacKeown’s first crack at Albany.

“We have to beat them up front. Our big guys have to beat their big guys,” he said. “Then, we can’t beat ourselves.

“It’s been the same story every week. We beat ourselves against Kentucky, we beat ourselves last week — had the game, but didn’t execute and turned the ball over.

“We aren’t a good enough team to overcome two turnovers. Maybe we can over one but we can’t overcome three. But our goal is zero. The number of acceptable mistakes is zero. If we’re perfect, no one can beat us.”

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