From Aristophanes to Sophocles
Scott Miller
Thursday February 19, 2004
Both teams played well, but, in the end, the key was a Gladiators special teams play. The Gladiators were frustrated by several penalties that kept them from having another drive, and possible score, at the end of the first half. In the third quarter, the Gladiators were building momentum after holding the Avengers to field goals on two successive drives.
“I thought we really had the momentum; that we could do some things with that,” said Gladiator head coach Frank Haege. “We did have the tide turned until that onside kick. Then it was back to a dogfight.”
The Avengers tied the game, recovered an onside kick, and took the lead with two minutes remaining.
”We have (sic) the right guys in the right spots, but they didn’t do the right thing,” said coach Haege about the play and the team’s special teams performance. “We have a guy whose job it is to knock the ball out of bounds and he bailed out of there too early.”
Even with that, the Gladiators got one more chance and came close. With 1:53 remaining in the game, Clint Dolezel completed three straight passes to get the ball down to the Los Angeles 12-yard line. The next pass was completed to receiver Cornelius Bonner and he almost scored, but was stopped at the Los Angeles 3-yard line. Both of Dolezel’s passes from the 3-yard line were incomplete. The last pass, intended for offensive specialist Terrill Shaw, was knocked down by Avenger defensive back Kevin Ingram.
“At the end of the game, we had what we wanted,” said Haege about the situation in the last minute. “We had the ball last and a chance to win. We have to score.”
The Gladiators’ performance in each of their first two games was not as bad as the 0-2 record might lead you to believe. Quarterback Clint Dolezel finished this game with 312 yards passing on 24 of 32 completions, tying a Gladiators team record with eight touchdown passes.
When asked what needed to be done to keep the team moving forward after two difficult losses, the coach replied without humor. “You got to get a win… the guys see what you see, but we have to put it all together.”
This week, the Gladiators travel to Grand Rapids to face the Rampage (0-2). Las Vegas leads Grand Rapids in most statistical categories, but the most important advantage seems to be that the game is not on national television where the Gladiators are 0-3 in games televised on NBC.
Scott Miller is a professional computer geek and talk show host in Las Vegas. His show is streamed live from klav120am.com on Fridays at 8PM. Archives of his show, The Usual Suspects can be found at his website.
