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.

Central PA Vipers Stood No Chance Against Your 3-0 Pittsburgh Passion

This past weekend (Sorry that this is a little late. I'm consumed in finals week), your Pittsburgh Passion absolutely man-handled (woman-handled?) the Central PA Vipers, 52-0. Wilma Walton (above) led the game off for the Passion with a 49 yard touchdown, which was way too much for the Vipes to handle. Walton is 5th in the league with 208 yards receiving on the season.

PSaMP's favorite Passion player, Torina Henley, completed another game in which her yards per carry mark exceeded the previous game's total. She only rushed for 70 yards, but those yards were gained on only 4 carries! That's 17.3 yards per! She also scored a touchdown in every game, leading the Passion with 5 TDs. Her yards per carry average on the season stands at 11.2. Shelley Zoelle also amassed 70 yards on the ground on 7 carries. Still impressive, Shelley.

Lisa Horton finished 3 for 4 for 101 yards and a touchdown. Sticking to the game plan and keeping the ball on the ground, Horton gained 55 yards on 4 rushes, also adding a touchdown with her feet. Lisa is 3rd in the league in passing with 419 yards on the season. Her passer rating leads the league at an unheard-of 139.4.

Aside from Horton's league lead in passer rating, Pittsburgh punter Daniel Sepulvelda...I mean JoJo Warner, leads the league with her 39 yard average per punt. With Pittsburgh's unbelievable offense, Warner has only been called on to punt twice, but she's made those punts count. And hell yeah, I will celebrate any Pittsburgh player who leads the league in any stat.

Impressively, the Passion have scored 137 points trough 3 games, only allowing 21 points against. Their scoring marks are only bested by the 3-0 Chattanooga Locomotion, who have scored 160 points and only given up 7. In 3 games. Some of these stats are ridiculous!

Next week, the Passion host the Philadelphia Phoenix (1-2).