Giving B.J. Hill a chance to make one return is risky.
Deciding to kick to him again after he’s already taken one back for a touchdown is just plain fatal to a team’s chances of winning.
The Reading Express found that out the hard way in a 55-32 loss to the Green Bay Blizzard at the Sovereign Center on Friday night in an Indoor Football League matchup.
Hill, the 2011 IFL special teams player of the year, returned a missed field goal 57 yards and a kickoff 40 yards for scores to go along with a pair of fourth-quarter interceptions to propel the Blizzard (1-1) to its first victory of the season.
The dominating finish by the third-year defensive back began following Josh Floyd’s 27-yard kick return, which gave the Express the football at the Blizzard 17, down 27-19 midway through the third quarter.
The Green Bay defense forced Reading to lose a combined 19 yards on the next three plays, including a 3-yard tackle for loss by Hill on first down and the Blizzard’s only two sacks of the game on second and third down.
If taking a two-TD lead on Hill’s return of a missed 51-yard attempt by Erik Rockhold didn’t seal the Express’ fate, his second return surely did.
It came after Reading (0-2) had responded to the first return by putting together a 7-play drive of over 5 minutes that culminated with an A.J. McKenna 3-yard TD run to close the gap to 34-25 less than a minute into the fourth quarter.
Hill stole the momentum for good by returning the ensuing kickoff and coming up with two of the Blizzard’s four turnovers.
Linebacker Greg Jackson recorded the other two on a fourth-quarter fumble recovery and third-quarter interception. He also shared a sack with Junior Aumavae to lead a defensive unit which allowed just four rushing yards and 3.3 yards per play in the game.
The dominating play of the defense and special teams in the second half made up for the sporadic play of the Blizzard offense, which was stopped on downs on the opening possession after halftime and had to settle for an Adrian Trevino field goal following Jackson’s interception. It was also 1-for-6 on third-down conversions.
Running back LaRon Council had a strong game, rushing for 81 yards on 18 attempts and three TDs. The Blizzard’s net rushing total (57 yards on 22 attempts) took a hit on the final drive of the first half when a bad exchange resulted in a 24-yard loss.
Quarterback Donovan Porterie threw touchdown passes on the Blizzard’s first three drives of the game. However, one was a 35-yard interception return for a score by defensive end Michael London on the Express’ lone turnover of the game.
Porterie, who completed nine of 20 passes for 107 yards, threw TD passes to Desmond Tardy and Bryan Pray, who had a game-high five catches for 81 yards.
Box score
Box score
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