MONARCHS TURN BACK STEELERS IN RAIN

The final pulsating seconds were slowly ticking. It was late Wednesday night, a school night, and the rain was coming down off and on for the entire night. The Monarchs were in the First State "Delaware" and fighting for the fourth and final playoff spot and a rematch against the league "King Pin" Eastwick Dragons. It was fourth down and goal for the league newcomer the Hard Knock Steelers who trail 13-6. They lined up in shotgun formation and snapped the ball. It sailed over the quarterback's head. Three Monarchs chased him and boom it was over. The battle tested Monarchs turned back the Steelers and sent them on a permanent winter vacation.

I felt pretty confident going into tonight game Monarchs skipper Greg James said. I watched the film from the first game three times straight. I saw nothing on film that posed a threat except #44. He was clearly there best player but he never ran up the middle. He only ran sweeps. So we changed our defense to "40 Special" and tried to take away the outside. It worked for us tonight. Bottom line.

At first, though, the Steelers threatened to take most of the fun out the game as they capitalized a mistake by Monarchs signal caller G. Rhainey. He turned right and the Monarchs backfield went left. G. Rhainey subsequently pitch the ball right into the hands of #44 of the Steelers. He caught the ball in the air and was off to the races as the Steelers sprinted out to a 6 -0 lead.

But from then on, the Steelers attack stalled. for which much credit must go to the Monarchs defense who was led by S. Pratt, A. Richardson, E. Muse and E. Gleplay. As usual, it became psyched providing source of motivation from which the offense could draw. And with about seven minutes to go in the first half, the offense came through. First it was half back E. Muse on a 60 yard toss. Then it was powerful fullback K. Wilson Jr. who burst up the middle. Both plays resulted in touchdowns giving the Monarchs a 13 - 6 advantage.

During half time, the kids kept telling me that they are keying the full back. So, the objective in the second half was to give the ball to the half back and run out the clock. We have more than one weapon back there Coach Tone said afterward. And if it wasn't raining, we would have went to the air because on film, the Steelers did not respect our passing game. They just pin there ears back and rush in like fools.

With the win, the Monarchs earned the 4th seed in the league playoff which begins Saturday. They will play the Eastwick Dragons in a rematch from last Saturday's contest wihich the Dragons won 19-0.