Krunch vs. Nashville - Playoff Game 1
By Scott Loesch

Trailing 19-6 with six minutes left in their first round playoff game against the Nashville Dream, the Kansas City Krunch refused to give up. The Krunch scored 14 unanswered points to advance to the second round of the playoffs with a 20-19 victory at home.

The Krunch, 7-2, suffered a huge blow to its offensive gameplan when starting quarterback Ursula Copeland reinjured her wrist in the first quarter. Backup quarterback A.J. Thomas entered the game and helped lead the team to the thrilling one-point win.

“A.J. did an outstanding job,” Krunch head coach Jesse Mack said of Thomas who had a year of experience as the play caller for the Chicago Force of the IWFL. She joined the Krunch in February. “We were put it into a different mode after Ursula went out. That took away three-fourths of our offense including our capability to run the bootleg. Another aspect that we weren’t able to utilize was our side-to-side play because we didn’t have the personnel to run the reverse.”

Mack said he had never seen anything like the defense that the Dream showed them.

“It looked really weird. They were over stacking on one side and one of their defensive linemen was shooting the gaps.”

Thomas was 10 for 20 with 167 yards passing. She had two touchdown tosses with three interceptions. Her first score was a 57-yard pass to Dorothy Haughton in the second quarter. Thomas’ other touchdown pass was an 11-yard hookup with running back Cathie Stansbery with 20 seconds left to play. Thomas then hit tight end Stephanie Campbell for the game-winning two-point conversion.

Mack said Thomas struggled a bit in the third quarter throwing two interceptions with one fumble but assistant coach Brian Reeves “stayed in her head and kept talking her through it.”

“I take my hat off to her,” said Mack. “She could have given up but she didn’t.”

Stansbery also had a one-yard touchdown run that ignited the Krunch’s fourth-quarter comeback. She carried the ball 19 times for 100 yards. Haughton hauled in eight passes for 174 yards and one touchdown.

Mack said the play of the Kansas City offensive line was outstanding.

“We’re not great in size but what they’ve done against St. Louis and Nashville is maintain decent play and hold them. The last six minutes (against Nashville) was all offensive line. We also put in two extra blockers, Kim Kastilahn and LaPrett Rollins, who helped open holes.”

Mack said even a few days after the win he was still trying to find out when the game changed.

“We were in a position to win the game,” he said of the final minutes of the fourth quarter. “We battled them and got three turnovers in a row. I went back to the bench to sit down and draw up plays. I never thought we were going to lose. I drew up two new plays that we were going to need — one was the two point conversion that was designed to make the opening for Stephanie (Campbell) on the back side.”

Mack felt the Krunch played good defensively, holding Nashville’s running back to less than 100 yards after she had compiled more than 1,200 yards on the ground throughout the year.

“Defensively Micki Jones had two interceptions and two outstanding hits,” he explained. “One was a touchdown saving hit and one prevented a first down. She blasted her (the runner) at the end of a 30- to 40-yard scamper. She (Jones) has tremendous talent and could play any position on the field.”

Jones had five total tackles, broke up two passes and had two interceptions for a total of 49 yards on the returns.

Linebacker Sonya Harlin had five solo tackles with seven assists, while Rollins had three solo tackles, eight assists, and two and a half sacks.

Andrea O’Neal had seven total tackles with one interception for 37 yards. Kastilahn made 12 total tackles, hurried a pass, broke up a pass and had a fumble recovery. Monica Chiers added one and a half sacks with five total tackles.

Mack said Rollins and Nyala Chiers, who had seven total tackles in the game, had been two of the most consistent players on defense this season.

“Rollins can’t practice as much but gets the adjustments and plays during the week and comes to play,” said Mack. “Nyala should share the title of most consistent. She is all over the field defensively, from sideline to sideline. She doesn’t have very many interceptions but is doing everything else. She makes key tackles.”

On Saturday, July 10, the Krunch will travel to Oklahoma City for a second round playoff game against the No.1 seeded Lightning who they haven’t faced since losing to them in pre-season.

Kansas City defeated the Lightning once last year, going 1-2 against them during the regular season.

“It should be a pretty exciting game,” said Mack. “I don’t expect a high scoring game.

We hope to carry momentum from the Nashville win into that game and stay on that high. The pre-season game doesn’t matter. I feel we will do quite well.”