Indoor Football Weekly #30

Credit: Sioux City Journal

The CIF crowned it's Champion in Champions Bowl III and we've found out who would make the IFL United Bowl and the Inaugural NAL Championship Game.

Credit: Indoor Football League

The Indoor Football League kicked off it's (unfortunately) short playoffs this past weekend with Conference Championships. 

The opening game of the IFL Playoffs was the United Conference Championship between the Sioux Falls Storm and Iowa Barnstormers. The game started off fast and furious as Dee Maggit Jr. returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown to start the game of 7-0. The lead wouldn't last long as Korey Williams took the next kickoff back for a touchdown for the Storm to even the game up 7-7. From that point the game started to get out of hand as the Storm scored 28 unanswered points. A large part of that run can be credited to the defense that stopped Iowa on downs once and picked off Travis Partridge 3 times, including one that was brought back for a touchdown. After the 28-0 run both teams scored one more time each to end the half with the Storm leading 38-14. The Storm scored another 14 unanswered to start the second half which included Tyler Knight recovering a fumble by Travis Partridge. The Barnstormers would score one time in the 3rd quarter when Partridge connected with Balentine to end the quarter 52-20 as the 2 point conversion was no good. While the game was by far over at this point the 4th quarter saw the game that everyone wanted to see as both teams scored twice and stopped the opponent once, including a 4th pick on Travis Partridge to end the game. Sioux Falls heads to their 8th consecutive IFL United Bowl appearance with a 66-32 win over the Iowa Barnstormers.

Finishing the night was the Intense Conference Championship between the Arizona Rattlers and Nebraska Danger. The Rattlers started off the game with two unanswered touchdowns in the 1st Quarter. In the 2nd quarter the Danger managed to score two touchdowns but couldn't match the Rattlers, who scored 4 touchdowns, including 3 unanswered to end the half with a 34 - 14 lead. The 3rd quarter was very mundane with the only touchdown coming when Derric Bernard ran an interception back 40 yards for a TD. The Rattlers again took the 4th quarter by storm with 3 touchdowns to the Danger's two touchdowns. The Rattlers were led offensively by QB Cody Sokol who went 13-18 for 110 yards with two picks and 5 touchdowns (4 passing and 1 running) to take a 62-36 win over the Nebraska Danger and send them to the 2017 IFL United Bowl in two weeks.

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

Champions Indoor Football finished their 3rd season on Friday night with Champions Bowl II as the Texas Revolution hosted the Omaha Beef in Champions Bowl III at the Allen Event Center in Allen, TX. Champions Bowl III started to set the tone for a weekend of complete beatdowns (even though the final score didn't reflect it) and it started early as Chris Dixon hit Clinton Solomon for a 37 yard TD pass and then ran one in from the 17 yard line on the Revs next drive. Omaha would have Jonathon Ray pound one in from the 1 yard line to end the 1st with Texas leading 13-7. The 2nd quarter was a scoring fiesta with the Revs scoring four times, 3 of which were passing TD's by Dixon and one rushing TD by Dixon as well. The Beef would score twice both of which saw Ribbing run it in from inside the Red Zone. At halftime the Revs held a 39-21 lead over the Beef. The second half started off with Dixon tossing another passing TD  for the only score of the 3rd quarter. The fourth quarter saw another 6 TD's scored this time with 4 by the Beef and 2 by the Revs. The late touchdowns and three consecutive scores to end the game wasn't enough for Omaha as the Texas Revolution took a 59-49 win over Omaha to win their first ever league Championship.

Credit: National Arena League/Jacksonville Sharks/CW 12 Jacksonville

The National Arena League played it's Semi-Final playoff games last weekend in it's inaugural playoffs. The first game was on Friday night as the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks hosted the Columbus Lions. The game started off with Lehigh Valley getting 2 touchdowns in the first quarter and 3 unanswered to open the game. The Lions only points were from a 31 yard passing TD and a deuce (Kickoff through the uprights). At the end of 1 half the Steelhawks held a 21-9 lead. The 3rd quarter saw Lehigh Valley and Columbus trade touchdowns with Lehigh Valley getting a deuce on their last TD of the 3rd quarter. That however is when tables started to turn as the Lions scored 4 straight touchdowns capping it off with a second deuce for a 31-0 scoring run from the end of the 3rd quarter until late in the 4th. With under a minute to go the Lions held a 52-43 lead and in order to tie the Steelhawks needed a touchdown with conversion and a deuce. Lehigh managed to get the touchdown but with no time on the clock they couldn't kick off to try and tie the game and the Lions took a 52-50 win to send them to the NAL Championship Game.

On Saturday night the Jacksonville Sharks hosted the Monterrey Steel in the other NAL Semi-Final. A win for the Sharks puts the NAL Championship in Jacksonville and a win for the Steel would put the Championship in Columbus, GA. In a tight fight just like in Week 14, the Sharks took down the Steel 43-32 to send Jacksonville (as predicted) to the NAL Championship Game.

In the last 2 weeks we've had the Best of the Arenas competition and now were down to 16 arenas left to choose from. Don't forget to make your picks! Next week will be the IFL United Bowl and NAL Championship previews.