{"id":53988,"date":"2016-07-11T18:21:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T01:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=53988"},"modified":"2016-07-12T13:02:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T20:02:25","slug":"la-kiss-vs-tampa-bay-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=53988","title":{"rendered":"KISS Defense Quiets the Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nathan<\/a>

Nathan Stanley returns to the Kiss starting lineup and leads LA to the W. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

(Anaheim) – The\u00a0defense was in shut down mode throughout\u00a0and\u00a0the offense exploded in the second half as the KISS took care of Tampa Bay 48-21 Monday night before 6,249 at Honda Center. <\/p>\n

The defense stopped the Storm on downs on five different occasions\u00a0to set the tone for the offense who came to life\u00a0late. The score was tied at 14 at halftime but the KISS came out and blitzed Tampa Bay 34-7 in the second half\u00a0to win going away.<\/p>\n

\"DJ<\/a>

DJ Stephens slips a couple of tackles en route to paydirt. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/p><\/div>\n

The KISS got on the board first. After holding Tampa Bay on downs\u00a0Nathan Stanley hit Donovan “Captain” Morgan\u00a0for an 11-yard touchdown for a 7-0 advantage.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay got even on a\u00a0seven-yard TD strike from Jason Boltus to\u00a0T.T. Tolliver, but on the next series\u00a0Rory Nixon\u00a0rumbled in from two yards out for the KISS\u00a0to put LA back up by a score.<\/p>\n

The Storm responded with a score on the ensuing possession on a two-yard blast by John Brown.<\/p>\n

Neither team found the end zone\u00a0on their next possessions and the teams\u00a0entered the break tied. Then the KISS blew it open scoring the next\u00a027 points.<\/p>\n

Nixon got\u00a0his second of the night\u00a0from three yards out\u00a0on the KISS’ first possession\u00a0of the third quarter to go up 21-14.<\/p>\n

The KISS held\u00a0on downs again\u00a0and this time DJ Stephens was\u00a0on the receiving end of a\u00a0nine-yard Stanley touchdown bullet to put LA up by two scores, however the\u00a0extra point was\u00a0missed.<\/p>\n

The Storm fizzled\u00a0again on offense and the KISS took\u00a0advantage when Stanley connected\u00a0with Morgan\u00a0on a corner route for a 29-yard\u00a0scoring strike. Suddenly the KISS was\u00a0up 20.<\/p>\n

Stanley\u00a0to Stephens worked again – this time for 32 yards\u00a0as the KISS run\u00a0was\u00a0extended to 27-0 and the lead expanded\u00a0to 41-14.<\/p>\n

Adam Kennedy, spelling\u00a0Boltus, scored\u00a0on a\u00a0seven-yard TD run as\u00a0Tampa Bay finally broke through in the second half.<\/p>\n

The KISS\u00a0had one more strike left as\u00a0Stephens hauled\u00a0in a\u00a0TD pass\u00a0from back up quarterback Pete Thomas\u00a0from 29 yards out.<\/p>\n

After the extra point, a\u00a0fight broke out involving a player from the KISS and Tampa Bay.\u00a0Apparently a fan was involved as well and other players joined the fray.\u00a0The officials stated since there would be multiple ejections\u00a0the game was ruled over with 24 seconds still left on the clock.\u00a0Fines and suspensions are expected to be announced by the league this week.<\/p>\n

“Regardless of their record they (Tampa Bay) came in here to win a game.\u00a0So it was close,”\u00a0said LA head coach Omarr Smith.\u00a0“We made some adjustments at half time and did some things different offensively\u00a0and we were able to get some stops\u00a0and create some separation.\u00a0I was really happy with the way we played\u00a0in the second half.”<\/p>\n

Smith wasn’t happy with the way the game ended however. “I’m not happy about that at all. That’s not what we’re about.\u00a0We need to handle ourselves\u00a0with a little more composure, especially at the end of the game.\u00a0We’ll address that. But that’s not indicative of a football team that I have my name on,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

Stanley completed 17 of 32 for 186 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions\u00a0for the KISS. Stephens\u00a0had eight catches for 112 yards and three touchdowns. Tolliver had 10 receptions\u00a0for 116 yards and a touchdown for the Storm.<\/p>\n

The KISS, now 6-7\u00a0has a key game with Cleveland (7-7) this Saturday night at home. Tampa\u00a0Bay fell to 1-12 with the loss.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Anaheim) – The\u00a0defense was in shut down mode throughout\u00a0and\u00a0the offense exploded in the second half as the KISS took care of Tampa Bay 48-21 Monday night before 6,249 at Honda Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[536,9614,11696,9909,2238,9251,1193,9181,9816,11651,11694,12062,10301],"class_list":["post-53988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-news-notes-around-professional-football","tag-arena-football-league","tag-cleveland-gladiators","tag-dj-stephens","tag-donovan-captain-morgan","tag-honda-center","tag-jason-boltus","tag-john-brown","tag-la-kiss","tag-nathan-stanley","tag-omarr-smith","tag-rory-nixon","tag-t-t-tolliver","tag-tampa-bay-storm"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53988"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54018,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53988\/revisions\/54018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}