Frustrated by their first loss of the season last Sunday, the Utah Blaze couldn't wait to get back out on the field Friday night.
Pity the Grand Rapids Rampage who had to take the brunt of it.
The Blaze scored their most lopsided victory ever with an 83-42 shellacking of the Rampage at EnergySolutions Arena in front of 12,684 fans. Utah is now 3-1 on the year, while the Rampage fell to 1-3.
"This is what we're capable of," said Blaze coach Danny White. "If we put it all together, we're a pretty good football team."
The Blaze have been a pretty good offensive football team all season. The team's defense, however, has been another story. Utah was giving up an Arena Football League's worst 67 points per game through the first three.
But Friday night, the Blaze defense was outstanding. Utah caused five turnovers — with three Orshawante Bryant interceptions and two fumble recoveries. They also held Grand Rapids scoreless on two other occasions, thanks to missed field goals.
"We've said all along that we support the defense," said Blaze quarterback Joe Germaine. "That hard work — all hours they've put in to prepare — paid off tonight. What a great effort tonight. (The defense) set the tone for the whole game."
The Blaze offense was outstanding as well. Utah scored every time it had the ball until garbage time in the fourth quarter, when Steve Videtich missed a field goal. The 83 points scored by the Blaze was a team record as was the 41-point margin of victory.
"I'm especially pleased with the way we came out in the second half," said White. "We had a big lead and that makes it really tough to continue playing hard ... But our whole defense played four quarters tonight, and the third and fourth quarters were the best ones."
Germaine completed 20-of-29 passes for 268 yards and eight touchdowns and was named player of the game. Four Blaze receivers caught touchdown passes, led by Siaha Burley, who had 10 catches for 134 yards and four scores. Aaron Boone, playing in his first game since the opener after sitting out the past two with a sprained ankle, had five catches for 89 yards and two TDs. Two of Justin Skaggs' five catches went for touchdowns as well.
"It was an overall team effort," said Germaine. "The good thing about tonight is that we were able to spread the ball around pretty good. We had four guys that caught touchdown passes and that's good. It's going to help our offense out because other defenses that look at this won't be able to key on one guy."
The game certainly didn't get off to a promising start for the home team. Grand Rapids' Timon Marshall returned the opening kickoff 58 yards for a touchdown, giving the Rampage a 7-0 lead 15 seconds into the game.
The Blaze quickly responded on a one-yard Frank Carter run with 11:37 remaining in the first quarter to tie the score following a four-play drive. Both teams scored on their next possession as well and the first quarter ended in a 14-14 tie.
The Blaze took control in the second quarter, however. Utah scored the first 20 points of the quarter — on a two Germaine passes and a Kevin Clemens run — to give it a 34-14 lead with 3:35 remaining in the first half. Both teams scored once more in the half, giving the Blaze a 41-21 lead at intermission.
After a Germaine-to-Skaggs touchdown pass to open the third quarter gave the Blaze a 48-21 lead, Grand Rapids' Marshall was back to his old tricks. He returned his second kickoff of the night from end zone to end zone.
It wasn't nearly enough, however, as the Blaze dominated the rest of the way. They outscored the Rampage 42-21 in the second half.
"The two kickoff returns (for touchdowns) were really the only blemishes on the night," said White.
The Blaze will now have more than a week before their next game. They will face the Las Vegas Gladiators on April 1 in Las Vegas.
BLAZE BRIEFS: Ryan Dennard caught a 28-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter, giving him at least one score in each of the Blaze's four games this season. He also recovered a fumble on defense and was named the Ironman of the game ... Burley had 131 yards on kickoff returns and 134 on 10 catches, giving him 265 all-purpose yards ... Michael Bishop, making his first start since being acquired by the Rampage, threw for 200 yards and two scores, but had three interceptions and was sacked three times.
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com