Utah Blaze: Happy Blaze are here again after first win

This time, when Danny White entered the locker room after the Utah Blaze's game was over, he didn't have to try and rally his troops with a better-luck-next-time pep talk.

No, this time the Blaze coach walked into the locker room with a smile on his face.

"I just went around to everyone and hugged them," White said after Utah's 67-50 win over Kansas City, "and said 'Thank you.'"

The win is the first of the season for the Blaze and snaps a 10-game losing streak, including a loss in last year's playoffs. The 1-9 Blaze, as expected, expressed all sorts of relief after the game.

"Feels good, obviously," quarterback Joe Germaine said after leading the Blaze with 337 yards passing, completing 24 of 30 attempts with eight touchdowns. "Finally, to have something go our way. It feels good."

The game began ominously, however.

The Brigade, themselves sporting only one win this season, scored on the first possession of the game to put Utah in an all-too-familiar hole.

It didn't take long, though, for Utah to turn the score — and more importantly the mood — around.

Germaine found Huey Whittaker for an 8-yard touchdown to cap a two-play drive. The Brigade turned the ball over on downs the next time out and Germaine connected with JJ McKelvey to give the Blaze a 13-7 lead.

When it looked like the Brigade were ready to climb back into the game with the ball at the Utah 1-yard line, Vaka Manupuna forced a fumble when Chris A very tried to bull rush the ball in. Utah's Chris Janek gobbled the ball up, giving Utah it's second consecutive defensive stop.

Those stops proved to be the difference in the game as the Blaze turned the turnover into another touchdown — this one a one-handed grab by Whittaker for a two-yard touchdown the make the score 20-7.

"That one, particularly," White said of the stops, "when you knock it out at the 1-yard line — that gives you the separation that we needed."

To their credit, the Brigade didn't exactly fold up their tents and ride out the loss. But with Whittaker grabbing 11 passes for 117 yards and four touchdowns, Aaron Boone adding five receptions for another 110 yards and a score and Germaine adding a 9-yard scoring run of his own, the Blaze were thrilled to walk out of

EnergySolutions Arena with their first victory of the season.

"Everyone was happy," Germaine said. "It's a feeling we haven't had this year."

When Germaine scrambled out of pressure for his touchdown run, it gave Utah a 46-30 lead with 1:59 to play in the third — and marked the team's largest lead of the season to that point.

But until Kansas City fumbled a snap with 47 seconds left on the clock — this one recovered by Manupuna — the Blaze didn't exactly feel safe even with a 16-point lead.

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