READING, PA — Everything thing that went right one half, went wrong in the other for the Huntington Heroes as they lost for the first time

this season to the Reading Express 58-37 in an American Indoor Football Association game.

“It’s hard for me to explain. I can’t put it into words what happened to us,” said Heroes head coach Teddy Keaton. “We dropped too many balls, had three picks, and other unnecessary things happen.”

For the second straight week, the Heroes let an opponent run the opening kickoff back for a touchdown as Trent Jones returned Jason Cherry’s kick 53 yards for an early 6-0 lead.

But just like last week, the Heroes rolled off consecutive scores in the first quarter to take back the lead.

The first came from defensive back Deleon Rayner who stripped Shawn Foxworth of the ball and raced back 21-yards to give the Heroes a 7-6 lead with 7:07 left in the first period.

Darnell Kennedy found Tario Frederick for 15-yards to extend the Heroes lead to 14-6 in the opening period.

After a first half that saw the Heroes control the game, the second half was all Reading as the Express rolled off 20 unanswered points to take a commanding 36-28 lead to end the third quarter.

Rob Flowers lead the Express offense as he threw for 114 yards and two TDs and also ran for three scores.

Huntington cut the deficit to 36-31 with 11:37 left in the game on a 21-yard field goal by Cherry, but it would be the closest the Heroes would get as Reading outscored the Heroes 20-7 in the final 11-mintues of the game.

Reading’s Michael Baldwin returned an interception 45 yards for a score with 4:32 left in the game to make the score 50-31.

Huntington14 14 0 10 – 38

Reading6102021- 57

First Quarter

Re - Trent Jones 53 kickoff return (kick failed) 14:06

Hu - Deleon Raynor 21 fumble return (Jason Cherry kick) 7:07

Hu - Tario Frederick 15 pass from Darnell Kennedy (Cherry kick) 1:31

Second Quarter

Hu - Jermaine Blakely 1 run (Cherry kick) 11:37

Re - Rob Flowers 6 run (Eric Rockhold kick) 9:09

Hu - Kennedy 3 run (Cherry kick) 6:40

Re - Rockhold 28 field goal 0:46

Third Quarter

Re - Flowers 35 run (Rockhold kick) 9:03

Re - Shawn Foxworth 6 pass from Flowers (Rockhold kick) 4:52

Re - Foxworth 39 pass from Flowers (Rockhold kick) 2:59

Fourth Quarter

Re - Jason Henley 2 run 10:12

Hu - Michael Baldwin 45 interception return (Rockhold kick) 4:32

Re - Rouge

Hu - Marcus Bryant 6 pass from Kennedy (Cherry kick) 1:00

Re - Flowers 2 run 0:00

ReHu

First downs1114

Rushes-yards11-82 7-26

Comp-Att-Ints15-23-017-34-3

Sacks-yards2-17-2

Passing Yards114228

Total yards 194254

Fumbles-lost 2-11-0

Penalties-yards3-1510-41

Individual Leaders

RUSHING - Reading: Jason Henley 1-2, Rob Flowers 10-80; Huntington: Jermaine Blakely 6-24, Marcus Bryant 1-2.

PASSING - Reading: Flowers 15-23-114; Huntington: Kennedy 17-34-228.

RECEIVING - Reading: Shawn Foxworth 8-62, Jeff Willis 3-15, Tavis Laws 3-34, Terrance Hudson 1-3; Huntington: Jay Jackson 5-81, Tario Frederick 7-91, Marcus Bryant 5-75.