There was blood in the water after the Sharks’ second home game last Saturday when the Pittsburgh Passion delivered a 6–31 pounding at Aviator Sports Complex’s Floyd Bennett Field.
The rain and cold didn’t help the mood any as New York’s women’s professional football team suffered its first loss of the seaon at the hands on Pittsburgh (3–0).
The only score for the Sharks (1–1) came late in the game on a two-yard run by defensive end and running back Telisha Brown.
Pittsburgh’s first score was a field goal by kicker Amy Fallon. But as the second quarter continued, full back and linebacker Kadesha Clark ran in for two yards, and Passion quarterback Lisa Horton ran in for 5. With touchdowns completed and success with the extra points, the score was 0–17.
In the third quarter, the Sharks’ defense couldn’t block Pittsburgh tailback Krissy Edmonds’s 47-yard touchdown run, which with the extra point hiked the score to 0–24.
Then Sharks quarterback Karen Mulligan threw the ball to wide receiver Ericka Cottle, who was taken down on the one-yard line. On the next play, Mulligan handed off the ball to Brown who took it to the end zone, but the extra points failed, and the third quarter ended with the score 6–24. It was the last time the Sharks could score.
Pittsburgh wide receiver Amanda Haig closed out the scoring with a 37-yard run for a touchdown in the middle of the fourth quarter.
The Sharks quarterback was glad the stinging defeat came soon enough in the season for her team to bounce back.
“It was a very tough game,” said Mulligan. “Pittsburgh is a good team. They put us in situations that resulted in bad plays. We have to go back to the drawing board and make corrections. It’s a good thing that it’s early in the season, so that we can look at what happened in order to improve.”
But Mulligan added that she was never interested in just coasting.
“If you’re playing football and looking for competition, you don’t want the ‘easy games’ but rather the challenging ones that push you as an athlete,” she said.
The Sharks hit the road to North Carolina to battle the 2013 Independent Women’s Football League champion Carolina Phoenix on May 3, but the team returns to Aviator Sports Complex for its next home game on May 10 against the Washington Prodigy.
