(BELLEVILLE, IL) The St. Louis SLAM women’s tackle football franchise knew the turf task would be tough in its Women’s Football Alliance (WFA) battle against perennial powerhouse Chicago Force Saturday night at Lindenwood University.
The visitors certainly lived up their advance billing. Paced by quarterback Rasan Gore’s five touchdown runs, Chicago topped the SLAM 46-6 to remain undefeated (3-0).
“We knew that we were going to be in for a tough game,” assessed SLAM Offensive Coordinator Rodney Lacey after Saturday’s contest.  “We did have a couple of nice stops, both offensively and defensively, but Chicago’s a tough opponent and we knew what they were going to bring. We just have to build on those positives that we had and correct those mistakes.”
Chicago took the early lead with its 15-play, 80-yard drive and posted points with Elisha Okrey’s three-yard touchdown run with 8:47 left in the first quarter. Leeann Blusky ran in the two point conversion that gave the Force an 8-0 advantage.
After the SLAM punted the ball following a brief possession, Chicago stretched the score to 14-0 following Gore’s 29-yard touchdown carry with 4:46 left in the quarter.
Gore collected her second and third quarterback keepers for points as the half continued, first with an eight-yard scamper that pushed the Force’s lead to 20-0 with 9:48 left in the second quarter and then with a 19-yard romp that widened the sum to 26-0 with 5:22 remaining in the half.
The SLAM attempted a late mid-field drive in the half’s waning seconds but could not break the goose egg and trailed 26-0 at intermission.
In the third quarter with 7:57 left, Chicago’s Tamika Robinson extended the score to 32-0 with a six-yard touchdown carry to the left side.
The SLAM finally got on the scoreboard with a four-play, 54-yard drive. Beginning the sequence on its own 42 yard line, running back Danielle Brock racked 12 yards to start and quarterback Jaime Gaal connected with Kimberly Kinsella for a 17-yard pickup to push forward.
A defensive pass interference call moved the SLAM to the 14-yard line. With 6:20 left in the third, Gaal’s pass to Kaylee Neutzling resulted in an end zone strike and St. Louis narrowed the score to 32-6.
Chicago quickly responded a minute later as Gore scored her fourth touchdown run of the game via a 31-yard carry that extended the Force’s lead to 38-6.
To finish the third, Gore collected number five on the ledger with a three-yard run with 1:20 left and with the ensuing two-point conversion, the Force pushed the score to 46-6.
With a continuous clock running in the fourth, both teams failed to score in the final frame and Chicago preserved the 40-point differential to keep its record unblemished and drop St. Louis to 1-2.
Although the setback stung at game’s end, the SLAM now has to collectively regroup and refocus for next weekend’s road trip to Indianapolis to face the Crash (3-1) in what is arguably a must-win situation for the locals.
“Indy’s a good team,” said Lacey of next Saturday’s opponent. “They don’t spread the ball around like Chicago does and they don’t have the wide-open, fast-paced offense, but they have some great athletes so it’s going to be a tough game going into there.”
Gaal completed six passes for 77 yards for St. Louis while Neutzling caught four passes for 43 yards.
After two WFA games on the road, the SLAM’s next home contest is Saturday, May 28 against Kansas City at Lindenwood University’s St. Charles campus. For more information, go to stlslam.com.
By trade, he is a six-time, regional Emmy Award-winning news videographer/editor for KTVI/KPLR-TV. By hobby, he is a writer for Arch City Media, dating back to February 2014. Emphasis is on featuring and promoting local women's sports, but will cover anything that is not reported by traditional media outlets. Also a contributor to local concert reviews.
