Avengers Finally Get Shot at Gladiators
Steven Herbert
Sunday February 2, 2003
Although the Avengers season ended with a 66-41 loss, it turned out their next game would be against the Gladiators after all.
Los Angeles is scheduled to play host to the Gladiators, who moved to Las Vegas during the off-season, Sunday at Staples Center in the 2003 Arena Football League opener for both teams.
"I feel like we have a special team this year and think we have a chance to compete for the championship," Avengers head coach Ed Hodgkiss said. "We want to get off on the right foot. Las Vegas is going to be a tough test."
The Gladiators were 9-5 in 2002, winning the Eastern Division.
"They`ve got a quality quarterback [Jay McDonagh] and they`ve got some real dangerous guys at receiver," said Hodgkiss, whose team was 8-6, finishing third in the Western Division. "Mike Horacek is arguably the best receiver in the league."
Horacek made a league-leading 118 catches in 2002 for 1,281 yards and 31 touchdowns. That performance was far from a fluke. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Horacek was the AFL`s Offensive Player of the Year in 2000 when he caught 119 passes for 1,880 yards and 46 touchdowns.
Defensively, the Gladiators "can really get after it on the pass rush and their secondary is the most physical secondary in the Arena League," Hodgkiss said.
The keys to the game are avoiding turnovers, protecting quarterback Tony Graziani and effectively rushing McDonagh, Hodgkiss said.
Turnovers proved especially telling for the Avengers in 2002, when they won all five games when they committed fewer turnovers than their opponents and were 0-3 when they committed more turnovers.
Steven Herbert began covering Arena Football in 1988, the league’s second season. He has covered the sport for The Associated Press, Arizona Republic, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Providence Journal-Bulletin, Palm Beach Post, Daily Oklahoman and other publications. Herbert has also written on college and NFL football for The Washington Post and spent five years as a Los Angeles Times staff writer.
