Home NFL NY Guardians Holds Off The LA Wildcats At MetLife

NY Guardians Holds Off The LA Wildcats At MetLife

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NY Guardians kept the LA Wildcats off balance with their running attack

MetLife Stadium–It wasn’t a pretty game but the NY Guardians put enough points to come away with a win. In front of an announced crowd of 12,116 in East Rutherford, N.J. the NY Guardians defeated the LA Wildcats 17-14 Saturday afternoon.

Quarterback Josh Johnson completed 25 of 40 passes for 330 yards and two scores but LA managed just 40 yards rushing and were 2 of 12 on third-down conversion suffering their third loss in their first four games of the XFL season.

“We’re obviously excited about the win. We’re very pleased with the effort that our players put forth. I thought they continued to fight and play hard, which we needed to do if we’re gonna get a W against a very good football team. Josh Johnson’s a heck of a quarterback and made some spectacular plays, so we were very fortunate to hang in there and win, but that was the thing that I thought we could do if we just don’t self-destruct.” NY Guardians Kevin Gilbride said.

Former Rams quarterback Luis Perez, who started in place of the injured Matt McGloin didn’t light up the scorebaord for the Guardians (2-2) but was productive 18-for-26 for 150 yards and a touchdown pass to Mekale McKay.

Perez also received a lot of help from the Guardians’ ground attack, led by Darius Victor who rushed for 82 yards on 18 carries on the ground.

Nick Novak missed two field goals. The first was blocked by Jarrell Adams and the second was a 44-yard kick that was pushed wide right that would have tied the game late in the fourth quarter.

Johnson was without stat receiver Nelson Spruce, who sat out the game with a knee injury suffered in last week’s game over the DC Defenders. Johnson had a 4-yard touchdown pass to Tre McBride with seven seconds left in the first quarter and hit Saeed Blacknall on a 42-yard scoring bomb with 4:45 left in the third quarter.

“I thought we had our opportunities to win the game, and we did not take advantage of them,” Wildcats coach Winston Moss said. “Whether it was special teams, with a missed field goal, whether it was the offense being a little inconsistent … same thing with the defense. We missed a lot of tackles today, busted some coverages. So this was a team loss.”