Bowden leads Storm

His 346 all-purpose yards, a team record, help Tampa Bay to a 77-26 victory over Florida.

By MIKE READLING

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 4, 2000

TAMPA -- The past couple of weeks, the Storm has been looking for a spark.

Offensive, defensive, it didn't matter, as long as the Storm got something to prove that the rest of this season wasn't going to be a rehearsal for next season.

The Storm got one Saturday night. He is James Bowden. He is playing for his third team this season.

He tallied 346 all-purpose yards, setting a team record for the second time in three weeks, and scored three times to lead the Storm to a 77-26 victory over Florida in front of 12,417 at the Ice Palace.

The win was the 100th career regular-season victory for Tampa Bay coach Tim Marcum.

The 77 points are the most the Storm has scored at home and second-highest total all time, behind an 81-point outing against New Jersey on May 30, 1998.

The Arena League record for all-purpose yards in a game is 434 by Barry Wagner in a 1997 game while he was with the Orlando Predators. Bowden's record night makes him the fifth player in league history to have two 300-yard-plus all-purpose games in his career.

The Storm set a team defensive record by holding the Bobcats (3-4) to 73 yards of offense. Tampa Bay (3-5) also set a record with a 49-point margin of victory.

Bowden, who was released by New England and Orlando this season, tied the team record with 12 receptions, and defensive back Tommy Henry set a record with 11 passes defensed.

"We played a pretty solid football game tonight," Marcum said. "Defensively we did what we had to do. We cut down their short game, we had a lot of knocked down passes at the line of scrimmage."

But the story of the night was Bowden.

Because of his returns, Tampa Bay started at no worse than its 13-yard line in the first half and had an average starting position of its 22. Florida's average drive began on its 6.

The Storm used that field position to score touchdowns on four of its first five possessions and race to a 30-18 halftime lead.

"Special teams is a big part of these games," Bowden said. "When you can get the ball at the 20-yard line and only have to go about 30 yards, that's huge. We kept them on their heels the whole game; it helped us out a lot."

Tampa Bay opened it up in the second half, outscoring Florida 20-0 in the third quarter, capitalizing on the inaccuracy of quarterback Clemente Gordon. Gordon was the backup to Fred McNair for the first six games. He started Saturday after McNair was traded to Carolina last week.

Gordon did not adjust to his new role well, finishing 9-for-36 for 70 yards. He was 0-for-8 in the second quarter and 3-for-8 in the third for 14 yards.

Florida was coached by general manager Rick Buffington, who took over for coach Dave Ewart, serving a two-game suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct on the sideline last week against Grand Rapids.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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