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WARRIORS, DARK KNIGHTS SEASON OPENER
Billed as the "Game of
the Week" in the U.S.F.A, Delphos and Lima will meet
for the first time on June 2nd.
By Joel Renner
Lima Warriors Staff
Reporter
5/23/07
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LIMA -
One
of the nation’s most explosive defenses in semi-pro
football has Lima atop many preseason lists to win the
United States Football League.
But
it’s the performance of the offense featuring some new
linemen, running backs, receivers and a new offensive
coordinator that may determine just how far the
Warriors can go this season.
Lima
begins its quest for a U.S.F.A. championship as it
travels to a Delphos Dark Knights team at Ada War
Memorial Stadium on June 2 at 7 p.m.
High
expectations are nothing new for a program that won
the Minor League Football Association Ohio Valley
Division last season and finished 10-2 after losing to
Grand Rapids 35-22 in the conference finals.
“As
for as what team we’re most concerned about, at this
point it’s the Delphos Dark Knights,” Warriors coach
John Parkins said. “Their team number one on our
schedule. We don’t look past any team and the Dark
Knight will be ready to play us.”
Lima
will have to be careful to avoid looking past Delphos
and to its showdown with another western conference
favorite, the Akron Jagz on June 9.
The
Warriors and Jagz have never played each other, but
the match in Lima is being billed as one of the games
of the year.
The
Warriors have only won one conference championship
despite the huge success over the team’s six-year
history. The only thing keeping Lima from a shot at
the M.L.F.A. title the last two seasons was a tough
Grand Rapids team, which handed the Warriors their
only losses in those two years.
“Hopefully we can turn some heads…and win a
championship this year,” offensive lineman John Lance
said. “That’s really all that matters. That’s all
we’re out here for.”
The
offense is trying to be the unit that carries Lima to
a championship. Quarterback Justin Henderson is
taking back the position as Kaene Runion moves to
Tight End. The two players split time at the position
and accounted for 1,220 yards of total offense and 18
touchdowns – 14 passing – last season while tailbacks
Chris Brooks, Andrew Cleckley and Jeremy Bott rushed
for a combined 1,320 yards.
Henderson will have wide receiver Joe Butcher, one of
the fastest in the league, to throw to. Butcher is
also a dynamic return man and a player the Warriors
want to feature prominently in several different
capacities.
Butcher scored touchdowns both while receiving and
during punt returns in 2006. Butcher will take part
in the 2007 Scout Camp Pro
Football Regional Combine on June 2, the same day as
the Warriors season opener.
“There’s no better time than now to join this team,”
said running back Zach Weber, former Ohio Northern
University standout. “You can’t ask for a better
group of guys. They’re all out here for the same
thing, to be part of a family and win.”
Nearly all the defensive starters return from a squad
that allowed only one rushing touchdown and
intercepted the opponent 16 times.
The
Warriors offense feels that practicing every week
against their hard-hitting defense only makes them
better.
“It’s
rough going up against that defense,” Butcher said.
“It’s good playing against the number one defense
every week and it just makes us better.”
Lima
loses one major defensive force in middle linebacker
Davey Settlemire, who was an All-MLFA defensive player
last season.
“The
coaching staff is definitely seeing improvement at all
positions,” said Parkins, who is 46-10 in four years
at Lima, with three straight division titles. “We’re
going to be great. I’m pleased with what their
doing.”
Settlemire, the highly-skilled Defiance College
product, will be missed, but several linebackers
including Pierre Jackson, Barry Peel, Jason Bott and
Eric Siefker are ready for the task of continuing to
shut down running games.
Delphos is in its first season as a football team and
features several former Allen County Buckeyes players
who are looking to make an immediate impact in the
U.S.F.A.
This
is the first meeting between the teams and the winner
has the bragging rights for “Best team in the Lima
area”.
Commissioner Danial Marshall has listed the match up
as the Game of the week on the U.S.F.A Web site.
“I’m
just ready for a championship season,” Butcher said.
“I’ve been playing for three years now and we’ve come
close every year; I think it’s about time."
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