The Milwaukee Iron (3-0, 1-0) remained undefeated by winning its third consecutive game on Sunday as they played host in a 72-61 win over the Tampa Bay Storm (1-2, 0-0) at the Bradley Center in front of 4,049 fans.

After taking a three-point cushion into the intermission, Tampa Bay committed three costly turnovers in the second half that allowed Milwaukee to gain momentum and convert the miscues into a pair of late touchdowns, ultimately preventing Storm head coach Tim Marcum from earning his 200th career milestone victory.

Tampa Bay, however, did receive an admirable performance from wideout Cleannord Saintil, who before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with a knee injury, led all receivers with 128 receiving yards and six touchdowns. Saintil’s touchdown total on the evening left him just one shy of tying the franchise single-game record of seven held by former Tampa Bay receiver George LaFrance.

Saintil’s counterpart, the AFL’s all-time touchdown receptions leader in Damian Harrell, had three scores on the night for the Iron, including  his 1,000th career receptions on his first touchdown of the evening. Milwaukee’s Anthony Jones also found the endzone three times, once more than Tampa Bay’s Tyrone Timmons, who with 118 receiving yards, eclipsed the century mark for the third straight week.

Both Milwaukee and Tampa Bay traded a pair of scores to open the game, with each team converting on their initial offensive possessions. Milwaukee quarterback Chris Greisen, who threw for 270 yards and seven scores, opened the contest by hooking up with Harrell from 15 yards out, but Brett Dietz countered with a touchdown pass of his own to Hank Edwards which tied the game at seven. Greisen then found Jones in the endzone to take a brief one-score lead before Saintil punched in a run from the one yard line to end the period.

Saintil found the endzone twice more in the second quarter, first to match an additional touchdown by Harrell, and again to conclude the period, which capped the game’s back and forth scoring trend and helped the Storm take a three-point lead into the half. Timmons’ touchdown reception up and over an Iron defender brought the Storm back from a seven-point deficit after Milwaukee’s Tyre Young carried a Greisen handoff in for a score. The Storm’s defense came up big to match the offense’s production, breaking up three consecutive Milwaukee pass plays to force a Robert Fortstrom field goal that gave the Iron a 31-28 advantage before Saintil recorded his third score of the contest to put the Storm up at the half.  Forstrom missed a second field goal attempt wide left prior to the end of the second quarter.

After a strong first half, Tampa Bay’s offense began to falter following the intermission. Amidst tossing a pair of touchdown passes in the third quarter, Dietz committed the game’s first turnover by throwing an interception that led to the second of Milwaukee’s three touchdown passes in the period. Down 52-48 heading into the game’s final quarter, Saintil redeemed himself of a prior fumble which led to a Milwaukee touchdown earlier in the stanza by taking a handoff from Dietz and carrying it into the endzone to bring the contest to within five. Greisen rushed in a touchdown and threw for another to ice the game and to keep the Iron unbeaten on the year, despite allowing a second touchdown pass from Dietz to Timmons late in the quarter. Dietz ended the night one off his opening-day passing total of eight touchdowns as heconnected on 21 of 34 attempts for 316 yards.

NOTES:

• WR Lawrence Samuels split a finger on his left hand wide open during warm-ups and was held out of the game, Reggie Lewis made his first start at Jack LB…Other players injured were WR Cleannord Saintil (Knee), DL Tim McGill (Ankle), WR Hank Edwards (Wrist), Emmanuel Akah (Groin).
• Iron WR Damien Harrell’s first TD reception of the game was the 1,000 of his career…He is the ninth player in player all-time to eclipse that mark…He trails Samuels, the AFL’s all-time reception leader by 20 receptions and currently has 1,006…Harrell also has the second longest streak of consecutive games with a catch (135), trailing Samuels as well.
• Tyrone Timmons has his eighth consecutive multi-touchdown game and third consecutive game with 100+ yards receiving.
• Despite holding Chris Greisen under 300 yards passing and 70 percent on completions for the first time this season, Greisen was able to lead the Iron to a 3-0 start.

SCORE           1       2       3       4       TOTAL
TAM                14    20      14     13     61
MIL                 14      17     21      20     72

PASSING
TAM– Brett Dietz                   34-21-316-7-2
MIL – Chris Greisen             41-26-270-7-0

RECEIVING
TAM– Cleannord Saintil       9-128-4
MIL – Damien Harrell           9-78-3

RUSHING
TAM– Cleannord Saintil      5-1-2
MIL – Tyre Young                 10-46-2

All-Purpose Yards
TAM– Cleannord Saintil       213 yards
MIL – Nate Force                    120 yards