Toledo Spitfire Starts off Season with a Bang

By: Deb Wallace          

April 1, 2005 - TOLEDO, OH - It’s that time of year, flowers blooming, sunny days, and football. Yes, football, women’s football to be exact. The team started out the season back in mid March with a pair of scrimmages after working for a few weeks to get ready for the games. They are looking strong and are ready to go with the regular season close at hand.

The first scrimmage of the season came in St. Louis against the St. Louis Slam and the Kansas City Crunch. In both scrimmages, the Spitfire outplayed each team, with many things happening to get the season off to a good start. Highlights of the day included a spectacular day on offense and defense by Jessie Torda. She led the offense with great enthusiasm every time she touched the ball, plus her speed, balance and determination greatly impressed the coaching staffs of the Slam and Crunch. She also had an interception on defense. Other offensive highlights are that Cathy Yungmann to Amy Hoepf both got time at the quarterback position and enjoyed the competition that day. On defense, Amanda Thames and Kentrah Smith (first defensive action) each snagged an interception to go along with the one Jessie made. Heather Inderrieden and Joy Youster also broke up a number of passes throughout the day. Overall the defensive line was solid up the middle and many nice tackles were made. Areas needing improvement were very few, but include the offensive line being more physical while getting the quarterback more time to make passes. Also timing of the passing routes and more discipline among defensive ends needs to be worked on. Overall the good aspects outweigh the bad with much to look forward to in the next set of scrimmages.

The second scrimmage of the season was at Kalamazoo where the SW Michigan Jaguars and Indiana Thunder were the opponents. Yet again the Spitfire played well, outplaying the Thunder and holding their own against the Jaguars, one of the elite teams in the country. The good play happened even with the offensive and defensive lines doing double duty all day. Even with doing double duty, the defensive line was very aggressive in their pursuit of the ball. There were many bright spots on offense, with one being Jessie Torda and Kentrah Smith continuing to run the ball effectively with a handful of lengthy touchdown runs and many carries for better than four yards. Quarterback Cathy Yungmann demonstrated a presence in the spot not seen since the 2003 season and Heather Inderrieden remains a solid threat in the receiver spot. The one spot that needs work is the kicking game, but that is due to having most practices indoors up till now. There should be great improvement there with regular outdoor practice sessions. The best bright spot is that the rookies are learning fast and that their first big test is coming up soon.

Saturday, April 16 at 1pm at La Salle High School in Cincinnati, OH is the first game of the season. The first home game is April 30 against the Baltimore Burn at 7pm at Rossford High School. As always, more information can be found at the team’s website: www.toledospitfire.com.