Explosion brace for big challenge this week against Marion

Feb. 13--The Erie Explosion passed their first test Sunday by beating Northern Kentucky 42-30 in their season opener.

A bigger challenge awaits this week at home. Much bigger.

The Marion Blue Racers, one of the Continental Indoor Football League's most physically imposing teams, visits Erie Insurance Arena on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Explosion's home opener.

Marion, with 6-foot, 270-pound running back Chris Brooks operating behind a huge offensive line and quarterback Adam Neugebauer scoring five touchdowns, blitzed the Kentucky Xtreme 69-13 Sunday.

"They're a big powerful team and they're going to do a lot of running," Explosion defensive lineman Zach Williams said. "Whoever is more physical is going to win this game."

Williams and coach Shawn Liotta said the Explosion graded out fairly well both ways up front against Northern Kentucky, which lost quarterback Jared Lorenzen to a broken leg on a second-quarter hit by Deqwan Young.

But the Explosion were expected to be solid along the line of scrimmage. The questions were primarily at wide receiver and defensive back, where they sustained heavy turnover from last year's 12-0 CIFL championship team.

Rookie wide receivers Josh Mastromatto and Travis Tarpley both had solid games. Mastromatto had four catches for 62 yards and three touchdowns. Tarpley caught five passes for 44 yards, and Evan Twombly finished with four receptions for 22 yards.

"I thought our receivers stepped up and played extremely well," Liotta said. "Josh Mastromatto had a big breakout game and Tarpley and (Twombly) did a nice job as well. As a whole, I thought offensively we were probably a 'B' if you graded us out."

Defensive back Maurice Jones intercepted a pass for the game's only turnover, but Liotta said the linebackers and the secondary remain a work in progress.

"Defensively, the back end was the question mark and I think the jury's still out on that," Liotta said. "We knocked their quarterback out early in the game, so I don't know how much we were exactly tested out there. So I think this week will tell us a lot about where we're at."

Although they experienced nothing as serious as Lorenzen's broken tibia, which required surgery, the Explosion didn't come out of Sunday completely healthy, Liotta said.

Williams suffered a toe injury and is questionable for Sunday. A few other players will be evaluated late this week.

On the bright side, Williams said, the Explosion managed to extend their winning streak to 13 games Sunday and proved something to themselves by rallying from a third-quarter deficit to win on the road.

"We can overcome adversity," Williams said. "It wasn't a good win, but we found out that we can come together at the end and pull out a game.

JOHN DUDLEY can be reached at 870-1677 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNdudley.

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