Friday evening in its Continental Indoor Football League season opener, the Chesapeake Tide served notice to the rest of the league that the second-year squad is vastly improved over the expansion team of a year ago. The Tide played competitively in a 43-36 setback against the defending champion Rochester Raiders.
Chesapeake lost three times to the Raiders last season by an average of 37 points, but Friday it took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter and scored on the opening possession of the final frame. But during the remainder of the contest, Rochester made enough plays to escape the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro with a narrow victory.
‘‘I think a lot of those guys came in here thinking they were going to score 100 points against us,” said Chesapeake wide receiver Joe Able. ‘‘We had heard from other guys in the league that Rochester was talking about how good they were again. I think they have everybody back. But this isn’t the same Chesapeake team from last year. We knew this was going to be a dogfight. At halftime, we got chewed out because our offense wasn’t doing its job. We still can get better.”
Chesapeake quarterback Mike Fitzgerald led the Tide to two scoring drives in the first half that both ended with field goals, then two touchdown drives in the second half. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Fitzgerald scored from three yards out on a quarterback keeper and the Tide claimed a 36-28 lead that lasted for less than a minute as Rochester returned the ensuing kickoff for the tying score.
‘‘I think this team has a lot more unity than last year’s team,” Fitzgerald said. ‘‘We had a lot more individuals on the team last year. This team is talented and they want to play together. Believe me, we got chewed out in the first half for playing the way we did on offense. We did some things better in the second half, but there are still a lot of things we have to work on. Rochester wasn’t expecting this. They thought they would come in here and just roll right over us, but we’re a lot better team this year.”
Chesapeake looked capable of responding to the tying touchdown on its next possession as Fitzgerald connected with Raymond McCarter Jr. on consecutive passes to push the Tide past midfield briefly. McCarter fumbled after the second reception and Rochester gained possession in Chesapeake territory. Two plays later, Raiders’ quarterback Mike Mikolaichik connected with Maurice Jackson for a 21-yard scoring strike that gave the visitors a 43-36 lead with 10 minutes, 20 seconds remaining.
‘‘Defensively, I thought we played well,” said Chesapeake coach Matt Steeple. ‘‘We still have to do a better job of getting to the quarterback and making tackles. We have to learn how to finish. A team like Rochester knows what it takes to win close games in the fourth quarter.”
Chesapeake’s Jeff Overton returned a missed field goal attempt 55 yards for a touchdown. The Tide took its first lead of the night when Lamar Atkinson sacked Mikolaichik in the end zone, forced the quarterback to fumble the ball and then chased it down in the left corner of the end zone for a score.
The Tide will visit the Marion (Ohio) Mayhem at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Marion opened its season with a 34-33 victory against the Muskegon Thunder but dropped a 54-48 decision to the Saginaw Sting last weekend.
E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.
