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09/16/2005: "Recap: T-Birds vs. Maulers"

Recap: T-Birds vs. Maulers
Written by Heather Douglas

The Central Minnesota Thunderbirds escaped Minneapolis Saturday night with their winning streak in tact, but not by much.
The Thunderbirds came back from 21-10 second-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Maulers 28-21 and improve to 4-0 overall this season.
Players and coaches expected the game to be a battle between the Maulers – a former league powerhouse – and the Thunderbirds – who have proven themselves as the team to beat this season.
“No matter who’s ranked and who’s not, these two teams will always battle hard,” Thunderbird Coach Chad Baldwin said.
A first-drive field goal by Mike Jacobs gave the Thunderbirds an early 3-0 lead, but questionable calls by the officiating crew early on helped give the Maulers the momentum.
“I think between all the trash talking and the refs, that kind of messed us up,” Jacobs said.
The Thunderbirds muffed a punt and recovered it in the end zone on the first play of the second quarter, which lead to a Maulers safety and gave them their first points of the game.
. The Maulers then scored a touchdown two minutes later, but a missed two-point conversion gave them an 8-3 lead.
The Thunderbirds re-claimed the lead one minute later when quarterback Chris Esterley – a former Mauler player – completed a long touchdown pass to David Knutson. Jacobs’ kick was good and the T-Birds went up 10-8.
But the Maulers weren’t done yet.
The second-quarter scoring frenzy continued when the Maulers completed their own long touchdown pass, but the kick failed for a 14-10 Maulers lead.
A fumbled ball late in the second quarter was recovered by the Maulers and returned into the end zone, bringing the Thunderbird deficit to 21-10.
Coach Baldwin said he was not pleased with the officiating in the game, and said it didn’t match the level of play on the field.
“The level of play that this team and this league is at has exceeded some of the abilities of the officiating crew,” he said. “The MFL has gone way up in its abilities and the officials have to keep up with that.”
Before the half ended, the Thunderbirds scored on a 50-yard run by Eric Tarasewicz. The point after was botched and the Maulers went into the break up 21-16.
“When we went into halftime, we were a little frustrated and we were questioning some of the things we were doing,” Baldwin said. “We came out solid in the second half. We just played football. We didn’t get cheap.”
The two teams played evenly through most of the third quarter until the Thunderbirds put six more points on the board.
Josh Schleusner had an interception return for 29 yards, setting up the go-ahead score from Tarasewicz, who had his second touchdown run of the night. The two-point conversion failed, and the T-Birds went ahead 22-21.
In the fourth quarter, Tarasewicz found open field again to extend the lead. The kick failed and Central Minnesota went up 28-21 with nine minutes left in the game.
The Thunderbirds held the Maulers scoreless the rest of the way to remain unbeaten in the 2005 season.
“They came here to play and they took their shots,” Baldwin said. “We took a step back.”
Baldwin said his team relaxed at the beginning of the game instead of going all out from the start.
“We started to think we could just roll over them,” he said. “You still have to do your job and execute.”
Although Esterley had an off night, Tarasewicz picked up the slack with 19 carries for 210 yards and three touchdowns.
Esterley completed 10 of 19 pass attempts for 167 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
His lead receiver was Knutson, who had three catches for 97 yards and a touchdown. Chris Brustuen added three catches for 37 yards.
The Thunderbirds were sloppy on both sides of the ball through the first half, but made adjustments at half time. They and held the Maulers scoreless, giving up only one first down.
Ray Reinhart forced three fumbles on the defensive side of the ball, with Jeremy Gothman and Andy Viessman both coming up with recoveries.
Jeremiah Duval, Rob Baumgarn and Chris Camacho led the defense with six tackles apiece. Gothman and Jim Bruns each had three tackles.
“Our ‘D’ played very well,” Jacobs said.
The Thunderbirds had taken a break from practice the week before the game and Baldwin said that following the poor start to Saturday’s game, his team won’t be taking time off again.
“We’re never taking another break from practice,” he said.
Reinhart said the game was a wake-up call to the team.
“Not taking anything away from the Maulers, but we played very flat in the first half and we’ve got to come ready to play four quarters of football every week,” he said.
Jacobs agreed.
“We’re done screwing around.”
The Thunderbirds take on the defending MFL champions, the Midwest Pioneers, on Sunday, Aug. 7. The game will be held at St. John’s University at 3 p.m.