Passion defeat Sharks to advance to IWFL championship game
Much has changed in the Pittsburgh Passion's past seven seasons.
The team has switched home stadiums several times, from the South Side's George K. Cupples Stadium to North Allegheny's Newman Stadium, to Highmark Stadium before once again calling Cupples Stadium home in 2014. They even switched leagues — from the now-defunct National Women's Football Association to the Independent Women's Football League — prior to the 2008 season.
But one key detail remains constant from the Passion's 2007 NWFA title run: With one game remaining, the Passion are in contention for the league championship.
The Passion capitalized on several early New York Sharks turnovers and never looked back Saturday night to take the IWFL Eastern Conference crown, 26-12, in the teams' third meeting this season. The Passion will face the Houston Energy, which downed the Madison Blaze, 53-0, Saturday, in the IWFL championship in Rock Hill, S.C. on July 26.
A normally up-tempo Passion offense got off to a rocky start. Their first pass from scrimmage was picked off by Sharks defensive back Jewelle Grimsley, but the Passion negated any Sharks momentum thanks to Alex McAtee. The 4-foot-10 free safety twice found herself in the right place at the right time to intercept quarterback Karen Mulligan and give the Passion a short field to work with.
“We put more pressure on (Mulligan) to make a decision,” McAtee said. “Overall, I think we played great, aggressively. It was our best game of the year.”
On both occasions, the Passion came away with a score. Running back Ciara Chic scored from 33 yards to give her team an early 6-0 lead, and quarterback Lisa Horton found wide receiver Rachel Wojdowski a drive later for the first of two touchdown connections between the pair.
New York (7-3) had little to offer on the offensive side of the ball. The Sharks' running game was frequently stymied for little or no gain by a stout Passion (10-0) front seven, and Mulligan struggled with her accuracy all night, frequently overthrowing receivers to cut drives short.
New York's first score came in the second quarter on an 82-yard kickoff return from wide receiver/defensive back Nhandi Brown, who was beaten in the endzone by Wojdowski on a 50-50 ball a play earlier. The Sharks did not score again until defensive back Duece Reyes returned an Angela Baker fumble for a touchdown with 3:14 to play.
Horton took several ugly hits throughout the game and limped off the field near the end of the third quarter, forcing Baker to take over the Passion's quarterbacking duties for several drives. Horton returned and finished with 120 yards passing and 48 rushing.
“Playing the (Sharks for the) third time, I knew the first time we played them, they couldn't account for the running quarterback, so you gotta do what you gotta do to win the game,” Horton said. “It was a tough win, but a good win.”
Andrew Erickson is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at aerickson@tribweb.com.
