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ExtremeMonday, July 23, 2007 12:19 AM CDT
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Extreme ready for Horsemen
By Randy Reinhardt
rreinhardt@pantagraph.com
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BLOOMINGTON -- The Bloomington Extreme will hit the road for the fourth time in five weeks Saturday.

Don’t expect any complaints from the Extreme, who are happy to still be swinging away in the United Indoor Football playoffs

“The road doesn’t bother our guys,” Bloomington coach Ted Schmitz said after his team’s 43-30 victory over Rock River in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in Rockford. “We’ll play anywhere. Your place, our place, halfway in between. We don’t care.”

With a 5-3 road record, the Extreme travel to Lexington, Ky., on Saturday to meet the Horsemen for the Eastern Conference championship at Rupp Arena. Game time for the matchup of 9-7 teams has yet to be determined.

Lexington ousted RiverCity, 48-33, Sunday in St. Charles, Mo.

Bloomington defeated the Horsemen, 33-32, on April 21 at U.S. Cellular Coliseum. Lexington downed the Extreme, 40-34, June 9 in Kentucky.

“We’ll have our hands full down in Lexington,” Schmitz said Sunday. “They’ve got their quarterback back from last year. He knows how to use their big receivers.”

The Horsemen signed Eddie Eviston just before the playoff roster deadline when quarterback Kewan Dewberry suffered a sprained knee. Eviston, who passed for 69 touchdowns and 2,764 yards last season, led Lexington to victory over RiverCity. He had been with Cincinnati of arenafootball2 earlier this season.

Turnover terrors

Bloomington nearly wiped out its minus 8 turnover ratio by forcing seven Rock River turnovers and committing none Saturday. The Extreme had caused 19 turnovers in 15 regular-season games.

“It was just playing hard, getting eight men to the ball and rallying to the ball,” said Bloomington defender Dorian Pitts, who had an interception and a fumble recovery. “We had great calls by our defensive coordinator (Terry McCombs) getting us in position to make those plays. We had to get on those guys from the get go, and we were fortunate enough to do that.

The Extreme also got interceptions from James Temple and Terrill Mayberry. Other Raptors’ fumbles were recovered by Rachman Crable, Shatone Powers and Winston Taylor. Mayberry forced two fumbles and Powers one.

Mike Crumpler had seven solo tackles and three assists to lead Bloomington.

“It always feels good to get a win, especially on the road,” Crable said. “We came out on fire and carried in on the rest of the game.”

Motivation plentiful

Three regular-season games had fueled the Bloomington-Rock River rivalry prior to Saturday’s playoff game.

“It was sweet. They’re the No. 1 seed and their coach had a tendency to run his mouth this week in the paper,” Extreme quarterback Dusty Burk said. “There were a lot of motivating factors as to why we wanted to win this game.”

Another factor became Rock River linebacker Maurice Simpkins wearing a boxing robe for pregame introductions.

“Yeah, it fired us up. There are a lot of things that fire us up about Rockford,” said Powers. “They downplayed us like it wasn’t a big game. We got kind of fired up over that, and came out and played a good game.”

Attracting a crowd

The Rock River public address announcer wasn’t sure exactly how to handle Bloomington rolling up an early 31-7 lead.

“Raptors fans, are you still out there?” he wondered aloud.

Two buses brought approximately 70 Bloomington fans, who could be heard at times from the upper level of the MetroCentre.

Take a look
The Bloomington Extreme's Shatone Powers, right, celebrates with teammate Jamar Leath, left, during the playoff game Saturday (July 21, 2007) against the Rock River Raptors in Rockford. (Pantagraph/B Mosher)
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