Undefeated Tri-Cities Team Visits New Mexico Tonight

RIO RANCHO – The New Mexico Stars of the Indoor Football League play at home for the first time in 26 days tonight when they face the Tri-Cities Fever (5-0) at the Santa Ana Star Center.

The Stars (1-2), the lone expansion team in the 16-team pro league, are coming off Saturday’s 31-24 loss to the host Wichita Wild (1-4), in which New Mexico rallied from a 31-9 deficit in the final 2 minutes.

Stars coach Chris Williams isn’t much for seeing silver linings in games, though.

	Today Tri-Cities Fever at New Mexico Stars, 7:05 p.m., Santa Ana Star Center

“It still feels like a loss – we don’t look for any moral victories,” he said of the close-call defeat in the team’s first road game of the season.

“We definitely feel like we could have played better and should have won the game. At the same time, we feel like this is a good opportunity to regroup. We have a really good team coming in here in Tri-Cities and we feel like if we can get a win there, it says a lot.”

Tri-Cities, based in Kennewick, Wash., has the best record in the league and reached the league title game last year. However, only one of its victories this season came against a winning team, when it beat Colorado. New Mexico has defeated the Ice, too, in its opener.

A point of concern for the Stars this week during practice was their continuing effort to try to fill the void left by Kelvin Drake. The center was placed on short-term injured reserve after injuring a knee March 11 against the Allen Wranglers in the Star Center.

“We just traded for a guy today,” Williams said before Wednesday night’s indoor practice. “We have a kid, Brock Mueller, that’s coming in from (IFL) Omaha. We had a couple guys try out last week – Rashard Mungro (Eastern Kentucky University), who’s normally a tackle, and Kyle McManus (Concordia, Minn.), who’s a rookie free-agent type.

“Brock is a kid who’s been around the game and has played it, so we’re hoping he can step in and do something for us.”

One aspect of the Stars’ game that isn’t a concern is the defense, which ranks No. 1 in the league in points allowed. And that’s despite playing the No. 3- and 4-ranked teams in scoring in Allen and Colorado. In fact, in each of the Stars’ games, foes have scored at least eight points below their norm.

Leading the way is ex-Lobo Tray Hardaway, a linebacker who has a team-high 29 tackles and four passes broken up.

Said Williams: “Defense is one of those deals where if you get enough tough athletes running around to the football and all they care about is hitting people and making stops, then you can be good. That’s the foundation of our team. The defense is the reason we can be a successful team down the road.”

NOTE: Williams has emphasized his goal this year is to get the Stars into the playoff mix. The top four teams from the United and Intense conferences qualify.

If IFL officials were to freeze the standings today and open postseason play, No. 4 seed New Mexico and No. 1 Tri-Cities would meet in a first-round game in the Intense bracket. But that game would have been played at Tri-Cities.

— This article appeared on page D3 of the Albuquerque Journal