Beef 60 Tropics 22

April 1, 2023

The Omaha Beef continued its winning ways with a 60-22 victory over the Topeka Tropics.  The Beef improved to 3-0 in Champions Indoor Football and will next host the Gillette Mustangs in a battle of unbeatens.   The Tropics remain winless in league play.

The Beef’s new placekicker, Paul Ortiz, got the scoring started with a 38 yd FG with 12:27 left in the first quarter.  Tommy Armstrong added a 1 yard run and then threw two touchdown passes to put the Beef up 24-0 before Topeka’s Julian Walker caught a 23-yard touchdown from Lorenz Stefan with 5:36 in the 2nd quarter.  Ortiz was successful with his second field goal, a 26-yard attempt, to help the Beef lead 27-16 at halftime.

The Topics opened the third quarter with a ten point play as Max Novak caught a four yard TD pass from Dylan VanBoxel, who took over for Stefan after halftime.  Topeka then went for a four point PAT and was successful as Shawn Thomas was able to wiggle is way into the endzone after catching a pass from VanBoxel to close Beef’s lead to 11. Omaha then went on a 33 to 6 run to end the game.

The Beef’s defense scored a defensive touchdown for the second consecutive week as Trey Dudley-Giles picked off a VanBoxel pass and returned it 45 yards.  Omaha had four sacks (Key James Black 2, JayShawn Washington 1, Tamar Heart 1) and four interceptions (Dudley-Giles 2, Dreko Statham 2) as they held the Tropics to 116 yards of total offense.  Topeka had been averaging 247 yards and over 45 points a game coming into the game.  Black was the leading tackler for the Beef as he made seven solo stops to go along with this two sacks after coming into the game after Cameron Hunt was ejected in the first quarter.   

Quarterback Tommy Armstrong ran for 23 yards on five carries and a touchdowns while throwing for another four. Armstrong did throw his first interception of the season but finished 11 of 19 for 126 yards. Dre’sonte Dorton, Gourney Sloan, Traveon Samuel, and Devanaire Conliffe caught touchdown passes as the offense average 6.3 yards per play. The Beef running game ran for another 119 yards as Chris Perry stepped in for Jailin Singleton in the second half to lead the team with 44 yards of rushing.  Singleton gained 37 yards on seven carries.

The Tropics stayed true to their pass heavy offense and they ran the ball only six times for 29 yard and threw 36 times.  Last week’s Offensive player of the week, Stefan, had a rough outing as he went 3-11 with three interceptions.  Greg Thomas lead the Tropics with nine total tackles, Marcus Gray added six tackles, and Tyrun Lemon added five to go along with his interception.

The Beef (3-0) are off to their best start since 2013 when they started the CPIFL season 5-0 on their way to a 10-3 record before losing to the Wichita Wild.  The Wild also defeated the Beef in the semi-finals. The battle for first place in the CIF takes place at Saturday at Liberty First Arena.

The Omaha Beef - Tommy Armstrong Youth Football Camp will be held May 12 & May 13. In addition to the football camp, your registration will include an Omaha Beef shirt, pizza party, and a ticket to the May13th game where all participants will play football on the field before pre-game activities kickoff that evening’s game!!! For more information contact the Omaha Beef office @ 402.346.2333 or register with the enclosed link!!!! #ORANGEKINGDOM

https://a4footballacademy.eventsmart.com/.../ta-football.../

The team is also taking nominations for its newly created Hall of Fame.  Nominations can be sent to ricky@beeffootball and will be accepted until April 10^th.  The inaugural class will be announced May 27^th.

2023 Omaha Beef Schedule (3-0)

Visit https://omaha.footballshift.com/ for more information.