The Lehigh Valley Steelhawks said good-bye to Stabler Arena on Saturday night, at least for the next month.
The Professional Indoor Football League team won't return until June 28 after playing five straight weekends on the road.
Forgive the Steelhawks if they ached too much to actually wave bye to their fans.
Lehigh Valley took a pounding on the field and on the scoreboard, falling to the Nashville Venom 53-38.
It was the Steelhawks' second straight loss after four wins to start the season.
Lehigh Valley quarterback Adam Bednarik, the Bethlehem Catholic graduate, was sacked five times and hit the ground at least five more times as the Steelhawks offensive line struggled to protect him against a Nashville front that featured Wayne Daniels from TCU, James Frazier from Minnesota, Cobrani Mixon from Kent State and Kenny Davis from South Carolina.
Bednarik was 22-for-39 in the air with one interception and three touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Nashville quarterback Charlie McCullum threw for 280 yards and five scores with three TDs to Jordan Jolly.
Lehigh Valley had first-quarter leads of 7-0 and 11-7 and went back on top at 17-14 early in the second quarter.
But Nashville closed the first half with 15 unanswered points and then got a 27-yard fumble return for a touchdown to start the third quarter to build a 36-17 lead and the Steelhawks could never recover.
"It seems to be the same story week after week; I seem to be taking a beating," Bednarik said. "We lost two straight and now we go on a five-game road trip, which is kind of tough. We just have to come together more as a team and it starts with practice. We have to have a good week of practice to get ready for a tough Trenton team next week."
Bednarik added that the two Steelhawks turnovers were costly.
"In this game, turnovers will kill you," he said. "They didn't turn the ball at all. Nashville is a good team. They have a lot of talent and they were coming after me from the start. It seems like I have a target on my back after the season I had last year being first-team all-league quarterback and then we started off this season 4-0. That makes teams all the more fired up to come in here and beat us."
Steelhawks coach Chris Thompson said it's a matter of getting healthy and getting back to basics.
"We didn't get it done on offense, defense and special teams," he said. "It wasn't just one phase. It was all three that didn't get it done. When have we had a game where we didn't get a turnover on defense? And we had a couple on offense. It's not like us. And there were some balls up for grabs where we had a chance to make a play, but didn't knock the ball down or get an interception.
"There are a couple of things we need to look at on film and see where we're at, and we need to get healthier. It might be good for us to get away. We just have to get back to work and look at the film and learn from it."
SCORING SUMMARY
Nashville Venom 14 – 15 – 7 – 17 – 53
LV Steelhawks 11 – 6 – 7 – 14 – 38
FIRST QUARTER
LV – Jeff Link 1 run (kick failed), 10:03
LV – Mike Barnard rouge, 9:32
NV – Jordan Jolly 45 pass from Charlie McCullum (Christian Reed kick) 9:14
LV – Barnard 51 FG, 5:43
LV – Barnard rouge, 5:43
NV—Phillip Barnett 4 pass from McCullum (Christian Reed kick) 0:49
SECOND QUARTER
LV – Corey Konycki 7 pass from Adam Bednarik (kick failed), 8:51
NV – Jolly 47 pass from McCullum (Reed kick), 6:49
NV – McCullum 1 run (Reed kick), 2:35
NV – Reed rouge, 1:57
THIRD QUARTER
NV – Anthony Kelly 27 fumble recovery (Reed kick), 13:25
LV – Richie Martin 17 pass from Bednarik (Barnard kick), 10:53
FOURTH QUARTER
LV – Torieal Gibson 9 pass from Bednarik (Barnard kick), 14:22
LV – Barnard rouge, 13:45
NV – Phillip Barnett 5 pass from McCullum (Reed kick), 10:27
NV –Reed 23 FG, 5:11
LV – Link 8 run (Barnard kick), 4:00
NV – Jolly 24 pass from McCullum (Reed kick), 1:45
Lehigh
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