Passion Advance to World Championship Game

PSaMP, your official unofficial Passion blogger, has already told you the score. Now its time for the details.

The 49-15 win over the Cleveland Fusion came on Torina Henley's 36th birthday. What a way to celebrate!

One-Two scored twice, and was helped on the rushing attack by Lyndsi Hughes (above) and backup Jenine Suprano.

Lisa Horton, the Sportscenter Top Plays extraordinaire, finished with 9 of 12 passing for 176 yards and three touchdowns. She threw two second-quarter bombs, connecting with Wilma Walton on a 48 yarder and with Lori Johnson on a 53 yarder. And these were after shaking off an early deficit.

Cleveland received the opening kickoff, and used only 9 plays to take an early 7-0 lead. Pittsburgh's defense, which has been nothing short of stellar all season, needed to regroup after dropping the team into a first quarter hole.

"We were a little nervous to start, but we regained our composure. This defense might bend, but it doesn't break," said Melissa Yeck, who lead the team with 12 tackles against the Fusion.

Henley countered with an 11 yard scamper, which tied the score at 7. Hughes put the team up for good with a 5 yard run later in the quarter.

The Passion took a 29-7 lead into halftime and never looked back.

Now its time to look forward.

The season concludes on July 21st in Nashville, Tennessee. There, the Passion will take on the Columbus Comets, who finished the regular season 6-2, in the 2007 World Championship Game. Despite the inferior record, the Comets have only allowed 15 points throughout the playoffs. And they knocked off the Chattanooga Locomotion, who went undefeated before only putting up 8 points against Columbus. The Comets defeated the Oklahoma City Lightning, 9-7 to advance to Nashville.

These playoffs provided a lot of firsts for the Passion. The team had never before beaten the Fusion, which has now happened thrice in the 2007 season. This was the first year in which the team made the playoffs. Ultimately, each playoff win was a first as well. First playoff win, first playoff win streak, first Conference Championship game, first Conference Championship win, first World Championship game...

Now its time for First World Championship win!

PSaMP has been proud to bring you Passion updates throughout the season, and hopes to bring better news come July 21st. I won't go so far as to say the Passion are the team to beat, because I will give tons of credit to the Comets. Looking at the records and win margins, however, and I will say that the Comets are going to have their hands full. The Passion showed early nerves against Cleveland, and that will no doubt be the case in Nashville as well.

Once the game starts, though, the Passion will be there to win.