Knights Ready for Trip to Cape Fear
Keith Murphy
Thursday April 24, 2003
Both teams find themselves in unusual positions, statistically; as Cape Fear, a defensive powerhouse last season, finds themselves ranked third in scoring offense averaging 57 points per game, and Macon, last year’s offensive juggernaut, boasts the top ranked scoring defense holding opponents to an average of 22 points a game.
Last week, the Knights’ defense shut down the then top ranked scoring offense of Birmingham en route to a 49 – 29 blowout. However, Macon doesn’t expect the Wildcats to roll over and play dead. Unlike Birmingham, Cape Fear has a veteran squad, “They’ve got about a dozen guys back from last year; most are up front, “ Said Knights’ Offensive Coordinator, Tres Sullivan. “They’ve also got some former Knights. Elton Davis has been playing Defensive Specialist for them and we traded T. J. Perry to them a couple of weeks ago. Their quarterback also has some af2 experience. And they know how to win over there.”
Last week, the Macon offense began showing signs of life, as Sean Peterson had the best game of his short af2 career rolling up a quarterback rating of 113. A large part of Peterson’s success comes from the simple fact that, in three games. The offensive line has not surrendered a single sack. Sullivan says that the offense continues to, “get better. We’re getting better, slowly but surely, the players are getting more and more comfortable with what we’re doing. The new guys, especially, are getting more comfortable and they are doing less thinking and more reacting to what’s happening on the field. The players are getting in the swing of things and starting to feel pretty good.”
Last season, Siegfried showed that he was an excellent defensive coach as he put together a defensive unit that led the league or was near the top of nearly all defensive categories. Even though the Wildcat defense seems considerably more porous this season, Sullivan says Macon just has to stay focused on playing their kind of football, “We’re not going to change a whole lot. Our motto has always been: ‘let’s take care of what we do and throw for a high completion percentage.’ If we do both, we’ll be OK. They’ve got some good guys in the secondary who we know very well. But we just have to take care of what we do.”
Cape Fear (1 and 1) comes into Saturday’s contest following a one point loss to Bossier City in a 62-61 shootout. In their franchise history, the Wildcats are 9 and 3 at home. Macon (3 and 0) hits the road for the first time this season following their demolition of Birmingham last weekend. A Knights’ win will give them their best start in team history, 4 and 0, and will guarantee at least a share of the lead in the American South division.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 at the Cumberland County Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
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
