Late Game Heroics Allow Bloomington to Edge Lexington Horsemen

For Immediate Release: Saturday, April 21, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ill - Dusty Burk's 17-yard touchdown strike to James Walton with 9.5 seconds remaining Saturday capped a late Bloomington rally that allowed the Extreme to edge Lexington 33-32 in U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

"Tonight, we were never able to get in a flow offensively," Horsemen head coach Mike Zuckerman said. "Defensively, we shut their running game down, but we let them get out of trouble a little bit and that hurt us. Their quarterback - Dusty Burk - is very good and very mobile and he did a good job of giving his team an opportunity to win."

The Horsemen (3-2), who led 18-14 at intermission, were up 32-20 with 5:35 remaining in the game after a 4-yard touchdown pass from signal-caller Kewan Dewberry to wide receiver John Cooper. Burk ran the ball in from 5 yards out with 1:11 remaining in the game and Lexington got the ball back on an onside kick, but was unable to convert on the scoring opportunity to set up Bloomington's late-game heroics.

"When we took the ball over on the onside kick, I knew we were going to have a short field," Zuckerman said. "I thought we could gain short yardage and then be done. We gained only a few yards on the first two plays to put us in a third-and-medium situation. We had to have a first down and we weren't able to get it."

Running back Rayshawn Askew led the Horsemen ground game, carrying the ball 15 times for 52 yards with two touchdowns. Wide receiver Harry Lewis had eight catches for 75 yards but was held without a touchdown in the game.

The Horsemen were playing without several key players due to injury, including kicker Collin Barber, who has been plagued with soreness in his heel that has not allowed him to kick. Wide receiver Octavious Latimore was injured in the first half, giving Lexington just three receivers for the remainder of the game.

"When you go into a game playing without a kicker, you know that you have to step up and make things happen to compensate for that," Zuckerman said. "Every game this season, even though we have scored a lot of points, they have been hard, physical games. When you keep going through that, your guys get beat up. That's just the nature of this game. It's a tough, physical league."

Lexington returns to action Saturday, April 28, when it travels to Rockford, Ill., to face Rock River. Kick-off is slated for 8:05 p.m. EDT and the game will be carried live on 101.5 FM The Planet and WVLK 590 AM with Gary Ball and Randy Wilson.

Complete results and a recap of the next weekend's action will be available at www.lexingtonhorsemen.com.

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 - F
Bloomington (1-3) 6 12 8 16 - 32
Lexington (3-2) 7 7 6 13 - 33

Scoring Summary
LEX - Askew 1 run (Dewberry rush failed) . 10:01 1st qtr.
BLO - Burk 1 run (Christofilakos kick) . 5:21 1st qtr.
LEX - Stewart 1 run (Dewberry rush failed) . 6:26 2nd qtr.
LEX - Stewart 35 pass from Dewberry (Dewberry pass failed) . 2:36 2nd qtr. BLO - Johnson 7 pass from Burk (Christofilakos kick) . 0:25 2nd qtr. LEX - Askew 2 run (Cooper pass from Dewberry) . 5:48 3rd qtr. BLO - Johnson 4 pass from Burk (Burk pass intercepted) . 2:14 3rd qtr. LEX - Cooper 4 pass from Dewberry (Dewberry pass failed) . 5:35 4th qtr. BLO - Burk 5 run (Christofilakos kick) . 1:11 4th qtr. BLO - Walton 17 pass from Burk (Burk rush failed) . 0:10 4th qtr.

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For more information, contact:
Gary Ball (gary@lexingtonhorsemen.com) or Sean Cartell (sean@lexingtonhorsemen.com) at (859) 422-PASS