For Revolution, another tale of two halves

The Richmond Revolution played two completely different halves of football tonight. The first half of football tonight saw the Revolution outscored 27-0, the second time this season the team failed to score a point in the first half. The second half featured a completely different team, as they blew past the visiting La Crosse Spartans 33-12. The team eventually fell short in the final seconds as a hail mary pass into the end zone was picked off to clinch the 39-33 win for the Spartans.

The Revolution, dogged by ineffectiveness and a seeming lack of desire in the first half saw their starting quarterback Dennis Brown benched in favor of newcomer Brandon Jones. The special teams for the Revolution also struggled as they suffered more blocked field goal attempts. Through four games this season the team has struggled mightily in keeping opposing defenses out of the backfield during field goal attempts. Kicker Justin Parker was able to start knocking them through in the second half, though, as the team started its comeback.

The team was boosted by newly acquired WR Scorpio Brown and he wrestled away an interception in the end zone to score the Revolution’s first touchdown of the game. Brown, who previously played for the Baltimore Mariners of the AIFA was one of that league’s top wide receivers before making the jump to the IFL this week.

The cold night on the SportsQuest campus saw the Spartans lose their kicker at halftime, forcing them to use one of their offensive linemen during kickoffs. The Revolution suffered through a few injuries of their own as LB Drew Gamboa sustained a concussion, RB Bernard Payton a sprained ankle and QB Dennis Brown going down briefly as well. The team was already playing without DB’s Alex Otoo and Johnell Brown, who is out three to four more weeks with a forearm fracture suffered in the final minutes of last week’s win over Lehigh Valley.

“The boys just had trouble getting excited for the game tonight, they just acted like they didn’t want to be there,” said Coach Tony Hawkins. “We had some serious talks during halftime and the guys responded well. We’ve got a lot of young players and they have to get used to playing professionally and taking responsibility for their actions. We’ll get everything turned around quickly.”

The Revolution will be flying to Green Bay, WI this week for a Friday night game against the Blizzard. The team returns home in two weeks for a divisional matchup against the Reading Express, the first of four games against the IFL Expansion team this season. The Revolution will be wearing special purple uniforms designed for cancer awareness. The jerseys will be auctioned off during and after the game, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Virginia Cancer Patient Fund. For ticket information for the April 9 game, visit www.richmondrevolution.com or call the SportsQuest Membership Center at (804)595-8437.