Knights Hold Off Battle Wings
Keith Murphy
Sunday June 8, 2003
“I just tried to do my best and not hurt the team. We sputtered there in the third and some of the fourth. But we got it together and came out with a win.” Alfred was named game MVP and says he feels that Macon is a good fit for him, “I feel a lot of love here and even though I did play in Augusta, I’m fitting in. They showed me a lot of love. My teammates welcomed me. I feel real comfortable here.”
Alfred says that Knights’ fans will have more to cheer in future games and, if tonight was any indication, opposing secondaries will have a great deal to fear. “I had a week of practice. It’s gonna come with a little bit of time and a little bit of work. The arena game is the same and I was in Dallas all year so we’ve got a different type of receiver here so it’s just gonna take a little more work and we’ll be all right.”
Knights’ Offensive Coordinator Tres Sullivan was pleased with Alfred’s debut as starter. “I thought he did a good job. He was consistent and that’s what I’ve been looking for. In the second half they did a couple of things, which we expected, we didn’t adjust to them as well as I thought we would. He did a good job. He managed the team well and got us out of bad situations. He did exactly what I wanted him to.”
Macon jumped out to a broad lead in the first half and found themselves scrambling to hang on as Bossier City clawed back and fell one poorly executed onsides kick away from a chance to steal a win. Knights head coach Kevin Porter said, “I thought we played well in the first half and kind of lost our intensity there in the second half. It’s just a growing process for our team and we’re still trying to bring this team along. I think that if we can continue to stay on the guys and if we continue to focus on improving then as we go through the next seven games we have a chance to be pretty good. We’ll just keep working and pressing forward and seeing if we can continue to push to a higher level of play with our group. We’ve just got to get them focused and dialed in and playing at a high level all of the time. We have to get them to understand that when you get lax, bad things are gonna happen.”
Webbie Burnett, Macon’s line coach, voiced disappointment with the second half performance. “The first half was an A minus; the second half was a D, wow. It was incredible. We’ve definitely gotta protect the ball and everybody has got to play their game and play within the concepts of our system. Other than that, a lot of things can happen.”
The Knights got a scare in the second quarter when FB/LB Byron Douzart went down after a frightening collision with the boards and a long injury timeout where the Coliseum grew silent. Despite the scare, he was back in the game in the second half. “You know, it takes a lot to bring a tank down,” He said. Burnett was a bit more concerned in his assessment, “Byron is fine. He’s one of those warriors who are hard to stop. He wanted to be in the mix. He’s fine, thank goodness.”
With the win, the Knights go to 6–3 on the season Bossier City falls to 3–7. The Knights are at home next Saturday, June 14, as they host the Florida Firecats (4-5). The Battle Wings host Arkansas.
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
