The Green Bay Blizzard won a tight offensive shootout Saturday in Fishers, 57-52 against the host Freight.

It wasn’t a super-fast start as the Freight had to work through a tough Green Bay defense to get in the end zone on their first drive. But with 8:23 to go in the first quarter, Josiah King put the Freight on the board. The Freight went up 9-0 on a deuce on the ensuing kickoff.

The Blizzard tied it on their first offensive drive with Isaac Ross hauling in a pass from Liam Thompson.

King had his second score of the game to make it 16-7 Freight with 1:24 left in the first.

“King is awesome man,” Wooten said. “He’s one of the best running backs in the league.”

Wooten said King runs hard and understands what he’s seeing.

“He runs with a purpose,” Wooten said.

But the Blizzard answered quickly as Thompson took it himself to make it 16-14.

The Blizzard opened the second quarter with a deuce to tie it at 16.

But King found a gap in the defense and hauled down the field for a first down and put the Freight in the red zone. From there, J.T. Stokes hauled in a pass from Felix Harper and the Freight went up 23-16.

The Frieght defense made two big stops as the Blizzard offense looked to march downfield. Green Bay attempted a field goal on the drive, but it was no good.

Harper hauled it in on the keeper and the Freight took a 30-16 lead. But Green Bay scored with six seconds left in the half to make it 30-23.

“We came out, we executed a little bit, but we didn’t finish the first half like we wanted to,” Fishers coach Dixie Wooten said. “We had a chance to go three possessions, and we got stopped on the fourth down.”

He noted how Green Bay then went and scored and were able to get back and get another score in the second half. Wooten praised Green Bay’s defense and said the Freight just have to play better to finish halves.

The Blizzard struck first in the third quarter as Ross and Thompson connected once again and the game was tied at 30.

Green Bay struck again as Thompson carried it himself to put the Blizzard up 36-30 as the point after attempt was no good.

King opened Fishers’ next drive hauling it about quarters of the length of the field to give the Freight good field position. A couple of drives later, Harper stretched out his arm with the official signaling a touchdown and the Freight took a 37-36 lead.

Then on the ensuing kickoff, the Freight converted on their second deuce of the night to make it 39-36.

Green Bay responded with Jack Studer hauling in a pass and then finding the end zone to make it 43-39.

Fishers took the lead back 46-43 as Dominic Roberto crossed into the end zone.

The back-and-forth continued as Thompson tossed it to Terrell Carey who hopped into the end zone and the Blizzard took a 50-46 lead.

With the Freight driving, the Blizzard forced a fumble with under four minutes to go.

The Blizzard extended their lead when Thompson hauled it on the keeper to make it 57-46.

But the Freight responded with 38 seconds left as Harper tossed it to CJ Windham to make it 57-52 Blizzard as the two-point conversion failed.

He said the Freight have to play as a unit altogether and that at the end of the day, they have to finish the drive.

Defensively, he said it takes more reps and emphasized how Green Bay has the league’s number one offense for a reason.

“We have to go watch film and understand what we did wrong and fix it,” Wooten said.

Wooten said they have to be dedicated to practice and to the grind of playing football to make it to the IFL’s postseason tournament.

Green Bay 14 9 13 21 – 57

Fishers 16 14 7 15 -52

Next – Green Bay (6-1, 5-1 Eastern Conference) hosts Quad City at 8 p.m. EDT on Friday while Fishers (5-2, 4-2 Eastern Conference) plays at Orlando at 6 p.m. Saturday.