There wasn’t any hidden rabbit trick in Damian Harrell’s magic bag Sunday as he played a major part in keeping the Pepsi Center a safe haven for the Colorado Crush.
Harrell’s work was crisp, clean and performed like clockwork as the Crush pulled away to a 66-54 victory over the Grand Rapids Rampage.
Included in Harrell’s nine- catch, five-touchdown game were three first-play touchdowns as the Crush (5-1, 3-0 at home) got right to the point, with maybe the most important of the three coming with 49 seconds left in the game. Harrell’s 15-yard touchdown grab along the sideboards came after he batted Rampage kicker Peter Martinez’s onside kick into the stands at the 15-yard line.
Quarterback John Dutton went right to Harrell, feeling no need for any preliminary acts.
“It was going to be hard to run the clock out. They had two timeouts left,” said Dutton, who threw eight touchdown passes. “We just wanted to score and put the pressure right back on them. We went up two scores again with 40-some seconds left and that’s kind of tough to overcome.”
Three times before in the second half, Grand Rapids and quarterback Chad Salisbury (30-for-42 passing with six touchdowns) had crept back into contention after the Crush had gained double-figure leads. But there wasn’t to be a fourth time.
Salisbury’s last chance ended when Crush defensive specialist Delvin Hughley knocked down a fourth-down pass, and the Crush ran the last 28 seconds off the clock.
Rampage defensive specialist Marvin Taylor credited Harrell’s magic as the catalyst.
“(Harrell) gets it done,” Taylor said. “They know how to use him. He runs very good routes. He’s a heck of a player. I wish he was on our team. He’s a challenge.”
“He gets on a little bit of a roll and that helps us as an offense and in turn as a team,” Crush coach Mike Dailey said of Harrell. “John Dutton’s read took him to Damian on the last touchdown. It wasn’t so much that we were looking specifically for Damian.”
Harrell said it was just executing a game plan.
“We don’t try to feed the ball to one person,” Harrell said. “We take what the defense gives us. I can’t take any credit. If you give any credit it has to be John Dutton and Coach (Brian) Partlow.”
Dailey had to make a tough call before the game. Kicker Clay Rush was unable to play because of a thigh bruise, and newcomer Jason Ball was told a couple of hours before the game that he would do the kicking.
Harrell’s other first-play touchdowns were a 20-yarder to start the game and a 22-yarder on the Crush’s first offensive play of the fourth quarter for a 52-40 lead.
Late in the first half and after the Rampage took a 27-25 lead after a failed Crush onside kick, Dutton fumbled the snap at the 4-yard line. The ball bounced into the Crush end zone, but Dutton scooped it up and took it out to the 2. Two plays later, Andy McCullough hauled in Dutton’s 4-yard pass for a touchdown and a 31-27 Crush lead at halftime.
While the Dutton-Harrell connection was a key factor, the Crush’s Willis Marshall left his mark. He amassed 198 yards on seven kickoff returns, three times giving the Crush the ball in Grand Rapids territory.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
