Rollin`, Rollin`, Rollin`
Daniel Frias
Saturday July 6, 2002
The ’Cats are off to their best… strike that… anyone’s start ever as they set a new AFL record for most wins to start a season (12-0), eclipsing the ’94 Predators start of 11-0. The SaberCats have been rolling through teams like it’s nobody business this year. I haven’t seen any thing this dominant in Sports since the New World Order took over wrestling back in 1996.
I don’t know if there’s any team out there that can stop the ’Cats right now except maybe the red-hot Oakland A’s. But then again I don’t know if Barry Zito fastballs and Miguel Tejada homers would work in arena football.
One of the main reasons the ’Cats are winning this year is because of players like 11-year veteran Barry Wagner who can do it all. He can score, run, catch, tackle, make big plays, recover onside kicks, intercept passes, score touchdowns on the ground or in the air, return kicks, give good quotes (sometimes), play defense, trash talk, excite the crowd. Did I forget anything? He can do almost anything except kick field goals and write Arenafan articles. “I haven’t kicked a field goal yet,” confirmed Wagner who ended the night with a total of 90 all-purpose yards, an INT, two rushing TD’s and a 10-yard TD catch in the second quarter to put the ‘Cats up 21-7.
But Wagner is not the only person on the SaberCats that can score. Rookie lineman George Williams, at 6’3” 300lb (no that’s not a typo), caught a short drop-pass from QB Mark Grieb in the second quarter and ran the ball 27 yards for a touchdown. Talk about excitement! That was the most exciting play I’ve seen all season. Once he caught the ball, it seemed like everybody moved out of his way (can you blame them!) and he just ran it in like a huge freight train, untouched all the way to the end zone. “I knew I could do it,” said the 300-pound Williams. “I do it every day in practice when we run that play. That’s my first touchdown in the Arena League so it feels good…it feels great.”
QB John Dutton saw some action in the game when Coach Darren Arbet put him in for the entire second half. “That was the plan,” said Coach Arbet. “We had to get him sometime and he came in threw an interception, settled down and he played great football.”
Dutton went eight for 11 with 76 yards passing for two touchdowns and one INT. He was happy to finally get some quality playing time. “Ah! It felt good,” sighed Dutton. “It’s been a while. I felt a little rusty in there, but the guys around me are great and they made me look pretty good.”
Although the ’Cats won the game, the fans were the real winners last night as the first 5,000 fans received Mark Grieb bobble head dolls for fan appreciation night. The SaberCats players, including coach Darren Arbet, stayed on the field for a half hour after the game signing autographs. The lights dimmed at 11 pm, an hour after the game had ended and everybody had left. Well almost everybody… QB Mark Grieb was still out on the field singing autographs for the few remaining fans, including 12-year old Matt Nagely.
“Yeah, we’re dedicated fans,” said Nagely. “It’s 11 o’clock, past our bedtime and we’re still here.”
A dedicated group of fans for a dedicated group of players.
Daniel Frias was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2001 to 2002.
