Less than a week ago, a jubilant Milwaukee Mustang Head Coach Bob Landsee, urged his team to build on their 50-33 win.

The idea was to take a step forward.

Such was not the case on the shores of Lake Erie Friday night.

Dan Whalen, who took over for injured starting quarterback Kurt Rocco early in the third quarter, threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more as the Cleveland Gladiators beat the Milwaukee Mustangs, 50-41, in Arena Football League action.

The Gladiators raised their East Division-leading record to 5-2 in front of the hometown Quicken Loans Arena crowd.

Milwaukee slipped to 2-6.

Cleveland wideout Troy Bergeron caught two touchdown passes (one from each signal caller) and had an electrifying, 58 kickoff return for the victors.

Brent Holmes and Damian Harrell each had two touchdown catches for the ‘stangs.

Mistakes once again stymied the visitors.

An interception by Mustang quarterback RJ Archer in the third quarter and a fumble following a sack in the fourth quarter deep turned into Gladiator tallies and they were forced to play catchup throughout the game.  

Once again the ‘stangs spotted the Glads a two-touchdown lead on a Rocco to Robert Redd hookup for 28 yards and a Carlos Downey eight-yard scamper.

Future hall-of-famer Harrell snagged a ball from Archer for 25 yards and a score to narrow the lead to 14-7.

Unfortunately, Bergeron used just seconds to get his team back in front, 20-7.

After Mykel Benson bowled over from the one-yard line for Milwaukee, Harrell caught another one of Archer’s arrows, this one covering 19 yards and the game was tied at 20-20 with 5:11 left in the first half.

Matt Denny’s 18-yard field goal closed out the scoring, 23-20, in favor of Cleveland.

The ‘stangs were driving to open the third quarter, but Archer’s attempt to Holmes was picked off in the end zone.

Rocco was rocked by the Mustang defense and Whalen stepped into his cleats as Cleveland continued to drive.

Whalen found Bergeron in the corner of the end zone and Denny’s PAT made it 30-20.

The next drive for Milwaukee saw back-to-back 10-yard infractions on fourth and one, the second of which nullified an Archer to Antoine Burns touchdown.

Instead of being with a chip shot of tying the game again, Cleveland took over on the downs, clinging to its 10-point cushion.

Andre Jones, coming off his Defensive Player of the Week performance, picked off Whalen and brought it back to the Cleveland five-yard line.

That was on the heels of a Bergeron TD that was called back on a holding penalty.

A third consecutive run by Benson broke the plane and Garrett Lindholm’s extra point made the score 30-27, with 23 ticks left in the third.

The Gladiators came back with a sustained drive aided and abetted by a trio of illegal defense penalties and Whalen took it in from the one.

Cleveland's lead was back to double digits, 37-27, with 8:56 to go in the contest.

Archer got sacked by Anthony Hoke and the already hobbled quarterback coughed it up at his own three.

Whalen found Bergeron on the next play and Cleveland started to pull away, 43-27, with 5:02 to play.

Archer stayed in the game as Milwaukee tried to make its way back, finding Holmes for an eight-yard score.

The two-point conversion failed as did the subsequent onside kick and there was simply too much ground to make up with too little time left in which to do it.

The ‘stangs stay on the road when they head to Utah to take on the Blaze on Saturday, May 14th. Kickoff is set for 9 p.m. CDT.

Milwaukeethen has its second bye before returning to action at home against the Orlando Predators on Thursday, May 26th. Kickoff at the Bradley Center is at 7 p.m.

Tickets for that game and the remaining home contests are available at the BC box office, through Ticketmaster, at www.MkeMustangs.com or call the Mustangs office, 414-224-4000.

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