Sunday, Jun. 28, 2009

Drafts delivers rare win to Fever

By Ben Reynolds, Herald staff writer

KENNEWICK -- It took nearly two years, but Colin Drafts finally got his first victory in a Tri-Cities Fever uniform.

Drafts, who returned to the team two weeks ago, provided some much-needed leadership and consistency behind center, helping the Fever to a 42-35 victory over Stockton on Saturday night at Toyota Center in front of an announced crowd of 3,139.

Drafts completed 27 of 36 passes for 288 yards and five touchdowns as the Fever ended a five-game losing streak, heading into a bye week.

"We just came out and played football," said Drafts, whose was 0-2 as a starter for the Fever in 2007.

It is the Fever's second win of the season, both coming against a Lightning (4-9) team that is fighting for the final playoff spot in the American Conference.

"I told these guys on Monday that we were going to win this game," said Fever coach Pat O'Hara. "They came out and found a way."

Drafts, who is the fifth starting quarterback for the Fever (2-11) this season, took the league's worst offense and seemingly turned it around in one night.

The 42 points was the team's third-highest point total of the season and the first time in three games the Fever scored more than 30 points.

The Fever led 24-20 at halftime, just the third time all season it has held a lead at the half.

"It feels good to get a win, but there were some growing pains out there," Drafts said.

The miscues -- an interception and two fumbles -- were easily overcome by a Fever defense that played its best game of the season.

The Fever intercepted Stockton's Chad Cavender four times and sacked him five times, including a safety. The 35 points allowed were a season-best, coming from a defense that was allowing 61 points per game.

Linebacker Chris Hemphill, who missed the last three games with a knee injury, had two interceptions, the last coming late in the fourth quarter that set up a Michael Braunstein field goal to make the score 42-33.

Curtis Terry, in his third game, had two sacks, including a safety in the third quarter. Julian Riley finished with three sacks.

"We jumped on them and wanted to come out in the second half and stay on top of them," Hemphill said. "We didn't want to lay an egg like we usually do."

The Fever, for the first time this season, found itself in the position to deliver a knockout blow on offense.

Tri-Cities scored on its first five possessions of the game and held its biggest lead of the season after Terry's sack at 32-20.

But the offense that had moved up and down the field so smoothly in the first half and on the first possession of the second half, suddenly lost its momentum.

The Fever failed to score on its next three possessions and Stockton rallied to take a 33-32 lead with 11:49 left in the game.

"We kind of fell apart a little bit," Drafts said. "But we were able to get back and make plays when we needed to."

Drafts went back to what was working all night to get the Fever the lead back -- throwing the ball to Brandon Copeland.

He hit the rookie with a 30-yard TD pass less than two minutes later to give the Fever the lead for good at 39-33.

Copeland had his best game of the season, catching a game-high 14 passes for 135 yards and four touchdowns.

Tommy Devereaux, who was activated off the injured reserve list this week, caught eight passes for 92 yards.

"I thought we came out and were playing football tonight," O'Hara said.