Eagles topple Typhoon, 40-14

The Express Electronics Eagles left little doubt that they wanted another shot at the Shell Lightning on Saturday morning as they throttled the Tinian Typhoon by a 40-14 score in the 2005 Commonwealth Football League playoff round to advance to the championships.

Quarterback Dane Lizama racked up 117 yards and three touchdowns through the air for the Eagles by completing passes to five different receivers including his favorite Luka Tapua’ialupe, who reeled in three for 73 yards and a touchdown.

Dean Camacho and T-Knight Sanders also brought down passes for touchdowns, but Lizama didn’t have to do all the work as his stable of running backs piled up a combined 165 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 24 carries. Stanley Iakopo led the charge for the Eagles by gaining 84 yards on seven carries while Semisi Paongo scored a touchdown and ground out 45 yards on nine attempts. Hard-nosed runner Soni Pomee also broke the plane while pounding out 19 straight ahead yards on six carries in the win.

There was little that the vaunted Typhoon defense could do to stop the Eagles’ assault on the scoreboard, but most of the damage occurred after the pulse of the Tinian program skipped a beat when middle linebacker Keith Nabors was sidelined with a knee injury.

Already down 16-6 in the second quarter, the Typhoon offense stalled on their side of the 50-yard line but opted to go for it on fourth down. The conversion attempt failed and the Eagles benefited from prime field position.

After the Typhoon sacked Lizama for a big loss, the game changed on the very next play as Lizama found Tapua’ialupe wide open between the hash marks and the big man took the ball 45 yards into the end zone untouched.

It was all downhill in a hurry for the Tinian squad from there as they surrendered another two points when they got the ball back when their center snapped the ball out of the end zone.

The Eagles got the ball back in excellent field position when Anthony “Ton” Borja’s ensuing punt went out of bounds before crossing the mid-field stripe. Three plays later Paongo took the ball 13 yards for a score and the rout was on.

With the score 34-6 at the half, the Typhoon tried to make adjustments to give them a chance, and though they tightened up on defense to stop the bleeding, their offense failed to flash the same brilliance that upset the Lightning two weeks ago in Tinian.

Injuries didn’t help the Typhoon either as Nabors was joined by Blake Manibusan and Ringo Reyes on the sidelines with a collection of bumps and bruises. Manibusan was taken to the Commonwealth Health Center before the half, but Nabors said that he got word that the game-breaker would be fine.

The absence of Nabors in the middle forced Typhoon quarterback Juanis King to play linebacker, and while Borja experienced some success under center against the Eagles in Tinian, he completed only two passes for 38 yards and was picked off once. The Tinian running game didn’t help either as it accounted for negative 65 yards on the day.

Another killer for the Typhoon came in the form of their old form as they racked up 85 yards of penalties on 13 flags.