Wrentham Rocketeers

1998 Review

When the 1998 Season started out, Wrentham was the defending champion team, but they won that as Pittsburgh and under different ownership. The season started out slow, with Wrentham barely beating two unowned teams, and then losing two games in a row to Long Island and Van Zandt. Going into the 5th week, Wrentham was 2-2. They were playing Dallas. Wrentham finally got it together against Dallas, using a blitzing defense. This was Wrentham's first win against an owned team. After this win, Wrentham put together a good winning streak for three games until meeting up with division winner Long Island again. Then Wrentham beat two great teams, Monterey Bay and Maryland. Wrentham lost to Roswell and then won two games in a row. Then Wrentham lost to Maryland, but still made it to the playoffs in the last spot. Wrentham had a record of 9-5 and got 3rd place in the Colonial Division of the VLC.

Wrentham had to go up against Long Island again after losing to them twice in the regular season. After getting very frustrated preparing the team, Wrentham's coach stopped his preparation while the other coaches said they needed more work. Wrentham's team got the last few days before the game off. This plan paid off as Wrentham won the game 17-12 and came very close to losing at the end with Long Island inside their 10 yard line. Wrentham was then going to face Monterey Bay for the Vince Lombardi Conference Championship. Monterey Bay took the lead and then Wrentham caught up and tied it. At the end of regulation, the score was tied at 24. Wrentham lost the game when backup quarterback Scott Mitchell fumbled the ball inside his own 10 yard line and Monterey Bay recovered the ball and scored a defensive TD to win the game. After this, Monterey Bay went to the World Bowl and lost to Hawaii, the 1998 HTFL Champions.

Overall, Wrentham had a great season. In Todd Hester's first season as coach, Wrentham made it to the VLC Championship and lost in overtime. Wrentham had 10 players make the Pro Bowl, including all-stars Barry Sanders and John Dutton. Also, John Dutton was named Rookie of the Year. Barry Sanders had over 1400 yards rushing and 8 TDs. He had a 330 yard rushing game against Blitzkrieg in Week 13. Rookie of the year QB John Dutton and WR Herman Moore connected many times and both made the Pro Bowl. Herman Moore caught 96 passes for 1333 yards. The offense depended on Dutton's passes to Joey Galloway, Keith Cash and Herman Moore with some running by Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders really stood out on special teams, breaking away on many punt returns and scoring a 79 yard TD on a punt return. He had 52 returns for 915 yards. The defense depended on the strong defensive line of Brad Culpepper, Anthony Cook, Tony Siragusa, and Keith McCants. The linebackers were great, led by Chris Spielman and Jason Chorak. The DBs did great too, being led by Todd Scott and Bracey Walker. The defense racked up 58 sacks on opposing quarterbacks and had 10 interceptions. Todd Scott had 3 interceptions, leading the team. Anthony Cook and Brad Culpepper led the team in sacks, with 9 each. Chris Spielman and Tony Siragusa weren't far behind, getting 8 sacks each.

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