Tri-City tops Allen to earn IFL title shot

ALLEN, Texas -- It was only fitting that the final contested play of Friday's Intense Conference final between Tri-Cities and Allen was an interception by Fever defensive back Dennis Rogan.

After all, it was the Tri-Cities defense that stamped its impression all over this contest as a game that started flush with offense was trumped by the Fever 'D'.

Rogan had two of Tri-Cities' four interceptions, and the Fever added two fumble recoveries and two sacks in a 67-46 rout of the Wranglers in front of some 3,000 Texas fans at the Allen Events Center on Saturday evening.

"Four interceptions tonight, the fumbles they recovered," Fever coach Adam Shackleford said via telephone. "They just gave us offensively a chance to settle down."

Houston Lillard took advantage and threw for 214 yards and seven touchdowns for Tri-Cities, which advances to the Indoor Football League championship next Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The Storm walloped the Green Bay Blizzard 52-12 in the United Conference final and, as the higher playoff seed, will play host to the title game.

"Our defense has been doing it all season," Lillard told KONA radio after the game. "We had a lot of confidence in them coming into the game. Once we got the advantage of possession, we knew we weren't going to lose because our defense was doing its job."

Lillard -- missing favorite target Joey Hew Len (ribs) and his IFL-leading 25 TD catches -- didn't seem to have any trouble spreading the wealth to Tre Young (5-103, 2 TDs), Steven Whitehead (4-42, 2 TDs), Jackie Chambers (3-23, 2 TDs) and Justin Jarvis (35-yard TD).

"Kudos to Coach Shack for recruiting these guys," Lillard told KONA. "Even though we were missing Joe, we were able to make plays out there."

Whitehead caught a 25-yard score on the first possession, and Young a 30-yarder on the first play of Tri-Cities' second drive as the two teams found the end zone three times on the game's first four plays from scrimmage.

Allen took a brief lead, 24-21, near the end of the first quarter before Gary Cismesia's 31-yard field goal early in the second. It was the first of four field goals for Cismesia, whose three kicks along with a 2-yard TD run by backup QB James Thomas II on the team's jumbo goal-line offense helped the Fever open a two-score advantage heading into the half.

The teams played even in the third quarter, thanks in part to a marvelous goal-line stand in which Joseph Thornton snuffed a fourth-down run from the 1.

Tri-Cities then put the game away in the fourth, again spearheaded by the defense.

First, Lionel Singleton intercepted Allen QB Kewan Dewberry in the end zone to snuff out one threat. Then Jake Kileen put a big hit on Dewberry as he was throwing, leading to Rogan's first interception.

All the while, Lillard and Company were capitalizing and pushing the margin to three touchdowns.

"We kept grinding and grinding," Shackleford said. "I told the kids, 'Believe, and we'll do what we've done all year.' "

And it's led to a date with a team most in the league acknowledge as the IFL's best on the final week of the season.

"It's been a two-year process to rebuild this," the second-year coach said, pointing to the efforts of his assistant coaches and the team's owners and management. "Two years of ups and downs. But a win like this lets us know we're turning a corner, and we got a chance to do something."

This story was originally published July 10, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Tri-City tops Allen to earn IFL title shot."