(ST. LOUIS, MO) As warm as the temperature was at St. Mary’s High School for the St. Louis SLAM’s opening playoff game Saturday night, the team’s collective play on the field sizzled even hotter.
Photo Credit: Gerald Affeldt
With the thermometer pushing upper-80s at kickoff, the SLAM cooked up a 42-0 halftime lead en route to scorching the Nebraska Pride, 56-0, in the Pro American Conference semifinals of the Women’s Football Alliance (WFA) playoffs.
With the sweltering shutout, the SLAM (7-0) seared their sixteenth straight victory.
The league’s defending Pro Division national champs now host the Minnesota Vixen (4-3) in the conference’s trophy game July 12 at St. Mary’s with the winner advancing to the league’s national title tilt later this month in Canton, Ohio.
Offensively, the SLAM had a sextet of players making end zone trips while quarterback Jaime Gaal threw five touchdown passes.
However, it was St. Louis’ stubborn defense that posted the winning points at the semifinal.
Photo Credit: Gerald Affeldt
With opening possession at their own 20-yard line, Nebraska – the 2024 WFA Division 2 champion that was jettisoned to Pro status this season – immediately found themselves in a fix. On the game’s first play from scrimmage, Pride quarterback Brittany Florer was chased deep in the backfield and sacked at the one-yard line by the SLAM tandem of Jennifer Tussey and Tay Johnson.
Then on the second snap, the Pride fumbled the ball in their own end zone and was forced to smother, resulting in a St. Louis safety scored one minute deep and a 2-0 edge recorded on the scoreboard.
With automatic possession coming their way afterwards, the SLAM started their opening drive from the Nebraska 32. Sixty seconds later, Gaal connected with receiver Sydney Bloch for a 30-yard touchdown catch. Place kicker Kerri McMahan added a successful PAT boot that resulted in a 9-0 advantage.
The Pride’s second drive yielded minimal results and following St. Louis defensive lineman Jennifer Perkins’ sack on third down, the visitors were forced to punt, relinquishing possession back to the SLAM at midfield with 11:12 left in the first.
Photo Credit: Gerald Affeldt
Quick work was made by the SLAM on their next drive and widened the lead to 16-0 following Jada Humphrey’s 15-yard scamper at the 9:49 mark and punctuated by McMahan’s successful PAT kick.
As the quarter continued, the dominance of the offensive line – paced by Caitlin Erickson, Pamela Green, Marion Ball, Tamikka Brents and Katelynn Hartman-Grier – kept momentum rolling with a seven-play, 52-yard sequence topped by Gaal’s second touchdown pass to Bloch, this time from six yards out, with 4:23 left in the frame.
McMahan successfully added the PAT kick to up the lead to 23-0.
Nesbraka’s offense was stifled again by the SLAM’s powerful defense – anchored by the aforementioned trio of Tussey, Johnson and Perkins alongside Kinnaudy Daniels, Brooklynn Devitt, Ciara Morgan, Stephanie Moore, Mary Altepeter, Raven Williams, Keyonna Smith and Zariah Johnson – forcing the Pride to punt for a third straight time.
Starting at their own 39 with minutes ticking away in the first quarter, St. Louis cobbled another lengthy drive that was completed with Taylor Hay’s one-yard plunge :45 deep into the second quarter, widening the locals’ lead to 29-0.
Photo Credit: Gerald Affeldt
On the ensuing kickoff, the Pride’s woes worsened with a ricochet fumble that was recovered at the Nebraska 32 by the SLAM’s Christy Burkett.
With the first snap of the SLAM’s fourth drive, Gaal combined with McMahan for a 32-yard touchdown strike, resulting in a pair of St. Louis scores in under fifteen seconds. McMahan finished the whirling dervish with the successful PAT kick that pushed the score to 36-0 with 14 minutes left in the half.
Lather, rinse and repeat as the SLAM “D” unit kept Nebraska silent on the next drive and the visitors were frustratingly forced to punt again.
Starting at their own 33, St. Louis notched the final touchdown of the half as Gaal connected with McMahan again for the quarterback’s fourth scoring pass of the game that blossomed the advantage to 42-0.
Photo Credit: Gerald Affeldt
After intermission, the game clock went to continuous play mode for the entire second half due to the wide point differential.
Honestly, that was a good thing, as it resulted in both providing valuable playoff reps for some of the SLAM’s reserves as well as points posted by this season’s crop of newcomers.
Included in the mix was a 91-yard touchdown catch by Aaryana Cook with 7:40 left in the third quarter and a solo-yard bust-through by Julia Kempff with 3:05 remaining. It was Cook’s fifth score of the season while Kempff notched her first career end zone trip.
The SLAM blanked the Pride 14-0 in the second half to claim the 56-0 semifinal triumph and their third straight appearance in the Pro American trophy game.
Photo Credit: Gerald Affeldt
Unofficially, Gaal finished with over 300 yards passing as the All-American reached 30 touchdowns overall in the ledger.
The SLAM’s defensive unit achieved their fourth shutout of the season.
Nebraska finished their breakthrough campaign in WFA Pro with a 4-3 record.
Tickets for the July 12 home game against the Vixen, the playoff’s third seed that upset second-seeded Cali War 37-26 in Saturday’s other semifinal, will be available online shortly. This will be the rivals’ third meeting this season.
For more information on the SLAM, go to their official website.
SLAM OFFENSIVE STATISTICS (UNOFFICIAL)
PASSING – Gaal: 17-20, 315 YDS, 5 TDs, 0 INT.
RUSHING – Humphrey: 4-50, 1 TD. Kempff: 5-13, 1 TD. Hay: 4-6, 1 TD. Fitzpatrick: 3-6. Cooksey: 1-5.
RECEIVING – Cook: 3-128, 1 TD. McMahan: 3-75, 2 TDs. Bloch: 3-66, 2 TDs. Smith: 2-26. Richardson: 3-17. Ball: 1-3.
KICKING – McMahan: 6-8 PATs.
(Story constructed through on-site, stream coverage provided by LiveStreamSTL. SEE THE REPLAY HERE)
By trade, he is a six-time, regional Emmy Award-winning news videographer/editor for KTVI/KPLR-TV. By hobby, he is a writer for Litehouse Media, dating back to February 2014. Emphasis is on featuring and promoting local women's sports, but will cover anything that is not reported by traditional media outlets. Also a contributor to local concert reviews. Finally, he prefers Diet Ski over coffee.
