Passion Season Ends, Yet Many Season Victories To Celebrate

The Pittsburgh Passion’s season came to an end last Saturday night against the Boston Renegades in the 2nd round of the playoffs.  But, there is still plenty of good to take away from this past season and looking to the future.

The Passion opened up the 2018 regular season with back to back victories over long time rivals the Boston Renegades (44-41 in Week 2) and D.C Divas (32-27 in Week 3).  These two victories were a part of an 6-0 start to the season for the team.

After a close loss to the Divas down in Washington D.C, the Passion closed out the regular season with a 61-0 victory over the Cleveland Fusion to finish out the regular season 7-1 and earned a #2 seed in the WFA Division 1 Playoffs.

During the regular season, the offense scored a total of 319 points (45.6 per game) ranking 3rd overall in the league and it all started with the play at the Quarterback and Wide Receiver positions.  Quarterback’s Lisa Horton and Ebony Montgomery combined for 1668 passing yards and 25 touchdown passes.  Led by Angela Baker, combined with Krystal Cozzo and Sharon Vasquez, the Wide Receiver trio combined for 1445 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns.  Running Backs Tara Catone, Kia Foster and Arielle Smith combined for 538 yards rushing and 9 touchdowns.

This was all done behind the starting offensive line of Sam Simeone, Dawn Pederson, Kim Zubovic, Veronica Burress and Lauren Ferragonio.

On the defensive side of the ball during the regular season, the Passion defense only allowed 111 points (15.9 per game) and ranked 8th in the league.  Defensive line leaders Kaitlain Niedermeyer, Kim Zubovic, Morgan Cross and Kelcei Edmunds kept the pressure up front and combined for 104 tackles and 6 sacks.  Tia Montgomery, Hannah Daman, Miashanti Smith, Devon Conner and Julie Ionta made an impact as the linebacking core combining for 123 tackles, 3 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 3 interceptions, 2 pass deflections and 2 blocked kicks.

The Secondary was loaded with depth as each of the following made huge defensive contributions throughout the season: Rachel Wojdowski, Ashley DeCicco, Santana Ramsey, Krystal Cozzo, Angela Baker, Tenisha Spencer, Rebecca Ehrgood, Jana Meister and Gabby O’Neil.  The Passion secondary combined for 10 interceptions, 3 fumble recoveries, 14 pass deflections and 3 blocked kicks.

On Special Teams, Kicker Kirsten Green led the league with 28 PAT’s made and also a 30-yard Field Goal.

Leaders from the 2018 postseason include Lisa Horton who threw for 225 yards and 4 touchdowns against Boston and now has 32 career postseason touchdown passes.  Rachel Wojdowski, Angela Baker and Sharon Vasquez combined for 213 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns.  On defense, Miashanti Smith led the way with 12 tackles followed by Kaitlain Niedermeyer with 10 tackles, Kim Zubovic with 6 tackles and Morgan Cross with 5 tackles and a sack.

The Pittsburgh Passion look forward to getting back to work after some time off this offseason and can’t wait to see what the 2019 season has in store.

To keep up to date with the team over the offseason, you can go to www.pittsburghpassion.com, Like us on Facebook (Pittsburgh Passion), Follow us on Instagram (@pghpassion) and Follow us on Twitter (@pghpassionFB).

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