Albany Stuns Richmond On Late Interceptions
David Chappell
Sunday April 6, 2003
The dramatic finish began playing itself out after the Speed took their final lead of the evening on a nifty 29-yard touchdown run by Gordon with 5:36 remaining on the clock. On the ensuing possession, Albany marched methodically from their own 13 yard line to the Richmond 15 at around the one minute mark. This is where things got very interesting.
On third and one from the Speed 15, Conquest quarterback Ryan Vena ran for an apparent first down, but Albany was penalized for being offside, pushing the ball back to the Richmond 20. On third and six, Vena attempted to hook up with OS Corey Hill, but there was contact between Hill and Speed DB Richard Holland and the ball fell incomplete. After a conference by the officials, Hill was called for offensive pass interference setting up a critical fourth down. Conquest Head Coach Pete Costanza opted to go for a first down, but Vena was intercepted in the end zone by Speed rookie DB Dashane Dennis with :46 remaining. Yet another penalty for being offside was called on Albany on the play, which Richmond declined.
The Speed were then seemingly in a position to run out the clock and secure the victory by gaining a first down, but on second and eight Gordon’s short pass intended for Kevin Harvey was intercepted by Beamon and run in three yards for the decisive score with :34 remaining. Richmond Head Coach Richard Davis took responsibility for Gordon’s end of the game interception, saying that Gordon’s “role in that situation is if they run press like they did, he runs a quarterback sneak to keep the clock running, but I frankly hadn’t covered that part of it yet with him. What we had covered, I don’t think there’s any question that Joel Gordon is going to be a fine football player. This was not his loss, period.”
Richmond still had opportunities to win the game in the closing seconds. A 36 yard return by Jeff Townsley on the ensuing kickoff, and an additional unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Albany, set up the Speed with a first and ten at the Conquest 11 with :28 remaining. Gordon barely missed connecting with Townsley for the go ahead TD on first down. On second down, Gordon attempted to hit Damon “Redd” Thompson cutting toward the left corner of the end zone. The ball was thrown high, bounced off the net, and was snared by Albany’s Ware with a mere :22 left to end Richmond’s hopes.
Vena said after the contest, “This was a great game, and a great team effort for us. We like playing on the road, it’s fun, and I think we just come together as a team.” Vena went 15-24 passing for 120 yards with one interception, and rushed for 73 yards and three touchdowns for the Conquest. Corey Hill caught ten passes for 66 yards and one touchdown for Albany.
This game was tight throughout, with neither team ever enjoying more than a six point advantage. After the teams were tied 6-6 after one quarter, Albany outscored Richmond 13-12 in each of the remaining three quarters to produce their three point margin of victory.
The loss spoiled an impressive debut by the Speed’s rookie QB Gordon, who finished the evening 14-24 passing for 213 yards and three touchdowns. WR Jeff Townsley caught six passes for 119 yards and three touchdowns for Richmond. Gordon also showcased his outstanding running ability, rushing for three scores as well. While poised and under control throughout, Gordon did have several forgettable moments, being intercepted twice and coughing up the ball in his own end zone :33 before the half, with former University of Virginia DE Ljubomir Stamenich recovering the fumble for a Conquest touchdown. Davis said the fumble occurred because “ Joel ripped a finger and it was bad and he dropped the ball. I told him tape it up, spit on it, whatever you have to do and get out there and fix that thing. He’ll be fine. He just lost the ball. If that’s the worst thing that happens in that kid’s career, we’re going to be pretty good.”
Kicking woes plagued Richmond throughout the contest. New Speed kicker Jeff Falkowski had a tough night, missing all three of his PAT’s, a long field goal attempt and kicked an onside attempt less than the required ten yards early in the third quarter. In fact, the Speed did not successfully covert an extra point attempt (either one or two point) after any of their seven touchdowns. Davis acknowledged that kicking was a problem, and that he would be reviewing and addressing that issue soon. In contrast, Conquest kicker Chris Drennan nailed two field goals and his deep angled kickoffs negated the Speed’s return game to a large extent.
Vena was complementary towards the Speed after the game, saying, “Richmond is a tough team, they always have a tough team. Coach Davis puts together a great squad and they have some great veterans coming back.”
In evaluating the Speed’s overall performance, Davis said he would need to review the game film to come up with any firm assessments. However Davis did comment, “We had some guys show some poise. Kevin Harvey is going to be real good at linebacker, he’s a good tackler.” Though the head coach clearly was not pleased with the play of some of the veterans on his young team. Davis explained, “We had veterans that let us down. We had some errors there that were veterans and that’s when you just kick yourself in the head, you know, what do you do about that?”
Neither the Speed nor the Conquest will have much time to dwell on the outcome of this game, as the clubs meet again in a rematch Friday night at Pepsi Arena in Albany.
While clearly disappointed with the close loss, the Speed seems prepared to quickly put it behind them and move on to Friday’s return match. Richmond DS Darrell “Nip” Henderson was philosophical about the loss, saying “a couple of plays here and there turned bad for us, but that’s the way arena ball goes.” Gordon echoed those same sentiments, stating, “Hopefully we can work out the kinks. We were right in the game the whole time.” Looking ahead to Friday night in Albany, Speed DB Richard Holland summed it all up by saying, “as soon as those four zeros come on the clock, you have to go on to the next game.”
David Chappell is a native of Richmond, Virginia. He has closely followed local sports in Richmond and vicinity for over thirty years, and Arena Football 2 since its inception. David currently writes extensively for a website that he co-founded which documents professional wrestling in Virginia and surrounding areas from 1974-1986. A former elected prosecutor, David is currently a practicing attorney in a large downtown Richmond law firm.
