LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Twisters received a lesson in focus Saturday night.
An essentially meaningless game got tense in a hurry, but the Twisters held on to beat the Corpus Christi Sharks 57-47 before 3,250 at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock. The victory keeps Arkansas (10-4) in first place in the Arena Football 2 Southwest Division and ties the best record through 14 games in franchise history.
But with a playoff berth already locked up, none of that proved much motivation for Arkansas, which had a commanding first-half lead dissolve in the third quarter.
"I think the guys sometimes get into this mode where they expect other guys to make plays," Twisters Coach Chris Seigfried said. "You just can't do that in this league. We kind of fell asleep for the better part of the third and fourth quarter."
Turnovers played a big role in the Twisters establishing their early lead. With Arkansas trailing 7-6 early in the first quarter, Brandon Freeman recovered a fumble by Corpus Christi's Jonathon Graham, setting up Kyle Rowley's 36-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Fairooz on the next play.
Arkansas' lead grew in the second quarter after Sharks quarterback Sedale Threatt fumbled near the Twisters' goal line. Tranaine Jahovah picked up the ball and ran 39 yards for a touchdown, bumping the Twisters' lead to 26-14.
Threatt, a rookie from Lehigh and the son of former NBA player Sedale Threatt, had another second-quarter fumble returned for a 16-yard touchdown by Aaron Robbins.
"When we get our turnovers, we can really put it on people," Seigfried said.
The Twisters went into halftime with a 40-21 lead, and opened the second half with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Fairooz.
But the Sharks reeled off three touchdowns in quick succession, starting with consecutive touchdown passes from Threatt to Anthony Chambers.
The quarter ended with Marcus Meaux returning a Twisters fumble 9 yards for a touchdown and Arkansas clinging to a 47-41 lead.
Corpus Christi opened the fourth quarter with a 5-yard scoring run from Threatt to tie the game, but Arkansas struck back on its next possession with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Fairooz to go up 54-47.
Another Sharks turnover, this time a fumble on a kickoff return by Henry Hall, gave the Twisters some breathing room thanks to a field goal by Taylor Rowan. But Seigfried wasn't happy about the game being close enough that Arkansas needed breathing room.
"It should not have been a 10-point game," Seigfried said. "It should have been more." Corpus Christi ........................... 7 14 20 6 - 47 Arkansas ................................19 21 7 10 - 57 FIRST QUARTER Corpus Christi - Threatt 27 run (Gatto kick); 12:54 Arkansas - Rowley 2 pass to Fairooz (kick failed); 8:35 Arkansas - Rowley 36 pass to Fairooz (kick failed); 5:19 Arkansas - Rowley 28 pass to Williams (Rowan kick); :01 SECOND QUARTER Corpus Christi - Threatt 36 pass to Graham (Gatto kick); 14:18 Arkansas - Jahovah 39 fumble return (Rowan kick); 4:43 Arkansas - Robbins 16 fumble recovery (Rowan kick); 2:49 Corpus Christi - Threatt 31 pass to Chambers (Gatto kick); :55 Arkansas - Ware 58 missed field goal return (Rowan kick); :14 THIRD QUARTER Arkansas - Rowley 25 pass to Fairooz (Rowan kick); 11:03 Corpus Christi - Threatt 21 pass to Chambers (Gatto kick); 6:17 Corpus Christi - Threatt 20 pass to Chambers (pass failed); :40 Corpus Christi - Meaux 9 fumble return (Gatto kick); :01FOURTH QUARTER Corpus Christi - Threatt 5 run (kick failed); 9:54 Arkansas - Rowley 19 pass to Fairooz (Rowan kick); 7:30 Arkansas - Rowan 27 field goal; 4:15 CC ARK First downs 17 12 Rushes-yards 8-46 7-33 Passing yards 244 219 Att-Comp-Int 41-21-1 27-17-1 Plays-yards 49-290 34-252 Punt return yards 0-0 0-0 Kick return-yards 8-162 4-78 Punts-avg. 0-0 0-0 Fumbles-lost 4-4 3-3 Time of possession 35:50 24:10 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING - Corpus Christi: Threatt 8-46. Arkansas: Cook 3-26, Rowley 3-5, Kinard 1-2. Totals 7-33.
PASSING - Corpus Christi: Threatt 41-21-1 244. Arkansas: Rowley 27-17-1 219.
RECEIVING - Corpus Christi: Chambers 8-133, Hussey 6-35, Graham 5-68, Nsekhe 1-5, Ellis 1-3. Totals 21-244. Arkansas: Fairooz 6-113, Williams 6-60, Kinard 4-39, Morales 1-7.
Sports, Pages 27 on 07/12/2009