Best Game of Atlantic Division to be Played this Friday
Keith Murphy
Wednesday July 17, 2002
Siegfried plays down the importance of the home field advantage when he talks about the Speed, “Honestly, I don’t think that it’s that big of a deal. We play well on the road or at home. Obviously you want to play at home and it is to our advantage to play them here since the crowds are starting to get into the team and it’s becoming a loud place to play. The important thing is not home field advantage as much as it is momentum. The team that wins Friday is going to have the momentum, regardless of the home field advantage, in the playoffs. It’s not so much where we play as it is performing well in this game; putting ourselves in a position where we know we can compete with them.”
Cape Fear has won ten games in a row and have passed a slumping Speed team down the stretch. Siegfried, however, remains adamant about who should be the favorite. “Richmond is a powerful team. They’re starting to click again. I think they’ve got themselves back in the form that they were in before they had the injuries and the other issues with their players. If anyone watches the transactions and sees what Richmond’s been through the past seven or eight weeks they’ll understand that when they played Albany the first time [WR/DB Jeff] Townsley didn’t play. When they played Norfolk I believe they had three or four players suspended including one or two of their defensive specialists. When they played Charleston they were a little flat. They’d just come off a big win against Albany. We had a very ugly win ourselves this past week coming off our big win over Albany.”
“For anyone to say the Richmond is not all they’re cracked up to be . . . .” Siegfried paused to laugh, “Richmond was in the Arena Cup, with almost this same lineup, last year. Their offense ranks highly in every category. Their defense ranks very highly. On paper, they’re a much better team than we are. Defensively we rank higher, but they’re right behind us. Offensively they rank high and we’re back in the middle of the pack.”
Siegfried says that for his team to win they must not only continue their defensive efforts, but they have to find a way to score. “I think it’s going to come down to turnovers. We have to try to match their offense. Richmond is a team that when they are on, they don’t make mistakes. We can’t afford to throw interceptions or fumble the ball. We’ve got to try to make them work hard for every score. We can’t let them get too far ahead of us. We have to keep them in sight. The last time we played them we went up 12 or 14 to nothing and the next thing you know we’re losing 20 to 14 by halftime. They’ve got a very good red zone defense and we have to find a way to get the ball in the end zone. 30 or 35 or 40 points Friday is not going to get it done. This has all the makings of a defensive game, but with their offense I expect them to score 35 or more points. We have to do something to spark our offense to be able to compete with them. Or it’s going to be a long night.”
Cape Fear’s defense, perhaps the strongest in the league, is led by AF2 sack king E. J. Burt who has 26.5 sacks, 9 forced fumbles, and 16 tackles for a loss already this season. That defensive unit will be tested by the Richmond’s receiving tandem Jeff Townsley (1,145 yards) and Kevin Harvey (932 yards) who have combined for 42 receiving touchdowns.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm Friday at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville.
Dr. Murphy has nearly 20 years of media experience ranging from radio to the Internet. He has served as webmaster for two AF2 teams and the football team at Fort Valley State University. He is a professor at FVSU and directs www.bunniwerks.org, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization. He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Murphy is also serving as a first party editor of af2 stories for ArenaFfan. For more information about Dr. Murphy see: www.keithmurphy.info
