Hard work paid off for Typhoon

When the final whistle sounded at Tinian Municipal Field to officially conclude the second regular season Commonwealth Football League game held outside of Saipan, hundreds of hometown fans celebrated as the Tinian Typhoon upset the Shell Lightning, 33-6.

While players on every team in the league publicly say that any team can win from week to week, few believed that the Tinian squad could knock off the Lightning under the lights.

According to head coach Andre Winston, luck had nothing to do with the win as his players put in the necessary time on the practice field and formulated a gameplan designed to stymie the league’s most explosive offense.

“This is just the result of playing as one unit. It feels good. I’m happy for the team more than anything. I keep stressing all the time that hard work pays off, and that’s all I want them to see. If they work hard, practice hard, and come together as a team they will reap the benefits,” he said.

For the second time at home, Winston led by example by donning the gear to become a player-coach and he told his players to capitalize on their emotions to get the extra fuel to shock the Lightning.

“I’m ecstatic for the team. After last week’s game I told the guys to play inspirational football. I told them that it’s our last game this year out in front of the home crowd and to play with their hearts. That’s all I asked from them. They executed the plays, they got their composure together, and played with their hearts,” he said.

After dominating the Lightning by holding their offense scoreless, linebacker Keith Nabors was riding high on a wave of emotions and said that he didn’t know exactly how to react.

“Man, it’s ecstatic, yo. I don’t even know how I should feel. It’s just a wonderful feeling being in front of the home crowd and whoopin that ass. I’m telling you yo, it’s Typhoon fever right now,” he said.

Nabors is far more than a key positional player for the Typhoon as he provides as much of the positive recognition for the players as well as doling out harsh words for those without his same passion for the game.

As the fans started celebrating the victory, he offered nothing but respect for his teammates saying that the win was a result of their hard work and determination in the days leading up to the game—especially his quarterback Juanis King.

“I think it’s just hard work at practice, really. The offense really got together this week and that’s what it came down to—working hard and doing what we wanted to do all week.

It was just [King’s] confidence coming into the game. I’ve never seen him the way he came into this game today. I’ve never seen him so confident in his throwing abilities. He really worked on it during the week,” he said.

King said that his confidence was solidified by the time he spent on the practice field with the offensive unit, and he praised his favorite target, Ringo Reyes.

“We’ve been working for five days for this game and I think the boys did what they were supposed to do—block, give me time to throw, and it happened. I really trust my receiver Ringo Reyes and I think that there’s nobody who can stop him in this league. He’s too fast. When Ringo is playing with me, I have all the trust in him when I throw it in the air,” he said.

King also praised his teammates on the other side of the ball saying that they were able to do what no other unit in the CFL was able to do by keeping the Lightning off of the scoreboard.

“I am so proud of my defense. They were killing them [The Lightning]. They didn’t let them gain any yards in there. Ever since we were playing as the Verizon Nitro our defense has been strong so I don’t worry about the defense. I am very proud of my team and we are going to try very hard in the playoffs,” said King.

When it was all said and done, Nabors also took some time to give his thanks to the fans from Tinian who came out to support the home team with cheers and well wishes. He also hopes that they come out to support them on Saipan on Saturday, Nov. 26 when they take on the Express Electronics Eagles in the playoffs at the CPA Airport Field.

“[The fans] were huge. They came out huge. Having that home town crowd after playing a couple weeks in Saipan was great,” he said.