The Bay Area Panthers set a franchise record for points in a 75-40 win over the San Diego Strike Force to secure a first-round home playoff game. 

Bay Area improved to 9-5 to clinch the second seed in the Western Conference and will face either Tucson or Northern Arizona on Sunday, July 23^rd at 3 pm at the SAP Center.

The Strike Force (5-9) needed to win their final two games and have Northern Arizona lose at Arizona to make the playoffs.
 
"I think the biggest thing we wanted to do coming out of the bye week was play complimentary football," said Defensive Coordinator Rob Keefe.  "Every time we got a stop, we wanted to get a score on offense.  We played great on special teams and the 75 points says it all.  I'm really proud of this team."

The previous high was 69 points in a win over Duke City on June 3.

JT Stokes scored career-best five touchdowns in the win—three receiving and two rushing scores.

The Panthers forced five Strike Force turnovers—four interceptions of Nate Davis and a fumble recovery by Wes Bowers.  Marquise Bridges and Trae Meadows each had two interceptions—Meadows closed the scoring with a 50-yard return for a touchdown late in the fourth to establish a team record for points.

"We put in the work in practice," said Meadows.  "We were making plays there and what we do in practice always translates to the game."

The Panthers never trailed—striking first on a Justin Rankin 2-yard scoring run to cap the opening drive and after Davis was picked off by Bridges, Dalton Sneed connected with Stokes from 21-yards out for a 14-0 lead.

San Diego closed to within 35-22 early in the third quarter on Kevin Goessling's 30-yard field goal.  That was the closest the Strike Force would get in the second half before Bay Area expanded the lead to 41-22 on Stokes' 5-yard run with 9:43 to play in the period.

Sneed returned to the lineup and completed 14 of 16 passes for 172 yards and three touchdown throws to Stokes.  Sneed added 53 yards on the ground with a 23-yard scoring run in the second quarter. 

Rankin rushed for three scores to give him 33 on the season, tops among IFL running backs.  He finished with 44 yards on 10 carries as the Panthers ran for a season-best 143 yards. 

Nih Jackson led all receivers with six catches for 97 yards before stepping aside for rookie Joe Nowden who caught a 17-yard scoring pass for his first IFL reception.

For San Diego, Davis finished 21-37 for 242 yards, three scores and four interceptions.  Edward Vander caught two touchdown passes and ran for two more.
 
Bay Area wraps up the regular season next Sunday at Duke City while San Diego travels to Vegas.