The Green Bay Blizzard played a game of two halves Saturday night
against the Louisville Fire, starting out slow and coming on strong
in the second half. However, a late flurry of scoring was not enough
to tally a win as they fell to their division rivals 45-39 at
Freedom Hall in Louisville. The loss was the first road defeat
suffered by the Blizzard, who had been perfect on the road in 2006,
winning both of their previous away games against the Manchester
Wolves and Quad City Steamwheelers, also divisional foes.

Louisville opened up a 21-6 lead as QB Brett Dietz threw touchdown
passes of 2, 37 and 20 yards to veteran OS Rob Mager on the home
team's first three possessions, and the Fire appeared ready to
deliver the knockout punch in the second quarter, but the Blizzard
switched into high gear. The Fire went nearly two full quarters
without a TD and scored just three points during that span as the
Blizzard climbed back into the game.

Down 24-6 early in the second quarter, Green Bay sliced the deficit
to 24-19 when OS Randall Lane ran in from the Fire 5-yard line with
4:11 left in the 3rd quarter.

The Fire answered again as Mager caught a 13-yard TD pass from Dietz
for a 31-19 advantage. Dietz threw two more TD passes, the fifth to
Mager from 3 yards out and another 3-yarder to Dennis Fryzel.

Dietz completed 24 of 34 passes for 219 yards, and Mager finished
with 8 passes for 87 yards and 5 TDs.

OL/DL Shelton Conner recorded an INT and helped provide consistent
pressure on Green Bay's QBs. The Blizzard switched QBs in the first
quarter, replacing starter James MacPherson with Ronnie Gordon.
Gordon completed 16 of 27 passes for 176 yards, and scored on an 18-
yard run as he followed the blocking of FB/LB Peter Lazare.

The Blizzard would pull to within 6 points with only 6 seconds left
on a TD pass from Gordon to WR/LB Robert "Superman" Garth, but the
Fire recovered the ensuing onside kick attempt and ran out the clock
to seal the victory.