STRONG START FOR ST. AUBIN IN FIRST GAME

By Dan Ryan
FriscoThunderIFL.com

SAN ANGELO, Tex. (May 17, 2008) -- Nothing establishes confidence more than immediate success.

The rest of the night may have been relatively unremarkable, but manufacturing a scoring drive on his first series set the tone for Wes St. Aubin's debut as a Frisco Thunder quarterback Saturday night.

The five-play, 45-yard drive resulted in St. Aubin's 13-yarder to Daron Lawrence and a 16-16 third quarter tie. The rest of the night of the night belonged to the Thunder defense, but let's not spoil St. Aubin's moment.

"We had to have it, HAD to have it," St. Aubin said about the touchdown drive. "It helped everybody's confidence."

For the second straight week, Frisco managed just one offensive touchdown in the first half. That's when the Thunder rolled the dice and elected to replace Wes Cooper, the IFL's leading passer, with a rookie with no previous indoor experience. St. Aubin played his college ball at Howard Payne and most recently has been taking snaps with the respected Dallas Diesel semi-pro squad team where several other Thunder players.  

With leading wide receiver Richard Morris out, the offense still wasn't where it'd like to be, but 28 points got the job done Saturday.

The touchdown pass was St. Aubin's only scoring toss of the night, but he did was he needed to on Saturday: Once the Thunder gave him the lead, he didn't lose it. This was a matter of managing the game by hitting third down passes and keeping the mistakes to a minimum. Two possession ate up 12 minutes of precious game clock.

Of course, he'd like to have back a fourth-quarter series where he couldn't help the Thunder punch it in from the one-yard line and a late interception, but the defense had his back both times, registering a safety and a game-preserving interception.

"I could have done better, but sometimes you do what you have to do to get a win, whether it's good or ugly,'' said St. Aubin, who finished 11 of 18 for 109 yards. "I don't care about the numbers, just the `W'...nothing's better than that."