The Bay Area Panthers capped off their thrilling 2023 season with a victory in the Indoor Football League’s National Championship game Aug. 5 in Henderson, Nev., where they beat the Sioux Falls Storm 51-41.
The win marks the Morgan Hill-based Panthers’ first championship in the Indoor Football League, and completes a rapid turnaround from the 2022 season, when they won only a single game.
Panthers quarterback Dalton Sneed led the Aug. 5 victory with three running touchdowns and two scoring passes to JT Stokes, according to a game recap by Panthers staff.
“We’ve got a resilient group,” said Sneed, who was named the game’s most valuable player. “We’ve (got) coaches who led us the whole way through. We believed in one another, came to work every day and you see all the work was put on full display today.”
The IFL Eastern Conference Champion Storm threatened to close in on the Panthers in the second half, cutting a 14-point deficit to 37-34 on a two-yard run for a touchdown on the first possession of the third quarter.
Bay Area responded in the fourth with Sneed’s second scoring pass to Stokes, then put the game out of reach when Marquise Bridges returned an interception for a touchdown and a 51-34 lead, says the game recap by Panthers Communications Director David Lewis.
“It’s a testament to all the hard work that these guys have put into it,” said Panthers Defensive Coordinator Rob Keefe. “From the first phone call to the first signed contract to the first walkthrough, first installation, first film session and first practice—we changed the culture.”
The Panthers moved their corporate headquarters and practice program to Morgan Hill at the beginning of the 2023 season in January. The team practices at the Outdoor Sports Center on Condit Road.
Awesome!
I heard they might move the team to Sacramento is that true?