Arena Football: Iowa Barnstormers Defeat Cleveland Gladiators, 70-62

Maybe the Iowa Barnstormers should be on national TV more often.

Even though the home Barnstormers (5-7) didn’t come out scoring first, the deep ball was all that mattered to quarterback J.J. Raterink and his crew tonight.

Raterink threw for nine touchdowns in a 70-62 win over the Cleveland Gladiators (6-5) Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena in front of 8,363 fans.  Even though Raterink’s nine throws into the end zone were one short of a record, his main receiver Jesse Schmidt did break a record with his 18 grabs.

“Some of the coverages that they were showing kind of dictated where I needed to go with the ball,” said Raterink. “That being said, you have to make the plays down field that the defense gives, and fortunately, we did tonight.”

It is Schmidt who usually receives the majority of the touchdowns—that was not the case in this game. Marco Thomas received three catches in the end zone while Collin Taylor got one in the first quarter to put Iowa on the board.

“Well, I think when you spread the ball around like that and get guys more involved that way, the guys will stay more in-tuned to things,” said Raterink. “I think that really helped them and allowed their defense to spread out a little bit more.”

Schmidt received the most touchdowns with five.

“Obviously, it was awesome to do it on national TV,” said Schmidt. “To have a game like that in front of all my family and a national TV crowd was certainly special.”

Defensive back Jason Simpson believes that the NFL Network, who televised the game, needs to come back.

“They are definitely welcome,” said Simpson.  “It’s nice to show people that we are better than we have played.”

Simpson had 12 tackles on the night, half unassisted and the other half assisted.

Another defensive player who had a big night was defensive back Cameron McGlenn, who stopped a major Cleveland drive with an interception that was in the end zone.

“Luckily it was a bad ball,” said McGlenn. “I stayed on him through the whole route man-to-man. He had to fall for it, and I had to tip it up and I caught it, but then he knocked it out of my hands.”

The original call was a touchdown, but was reversed to give McGlenn the credit for the pick.

“I knew that they had made the wrong call,” said McGlenn. “My hip hit the wall when the Cleveland guy touched me. It was our ball.”

Iowa went on to score on that drive in the second quarter.

Iowa dedicated their win to two fallen men who passed away this week: San Jose Sabercats fullback Johnie Kirton and Barnstormers owner Ben Silverstein, who died hours before the game.

“The players found out just before the game about Ben,” said Barnstormers Head Coach Mike Hohensee. “They didn’t need the extra motivation, but once they found out about that, I could tell they were ready to go.”

Despite not being with the franchise for very long, Raterink knew what kind of difference Silverstein made.

“He’s one of those guys who helped give us this opportunity, and you feel like that you should thank them everyday and next thing you know, he’s no longer with us. We hope he’s watching this and is as happy as can be.”

Raterink also had to mourn the loss of a former teammate with Kirton’s passing. Raterink was a teammate of his when they both played for the Chicago Rush.

“We were fantastic friends, and it just goes to show how precious life can be,” Raterink said. “He used to call me ‘Rev’ (because Raterink is an ordained minister) and used to pick me up when things got tough. He will be missed.”

Simpson also played with Kirton, and admitted that emotions ran high during the game.

“He was in my head and my heart throughout the game,” said Simpson. “He was a teammate who you wanted to get to know.”

The Barnstormers will hit the road June 9 to face the Arizona Rattlers, whom they defeated 56-54 on April 14.

Zachary James is a Contributor for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.