Gladiators Complete To Do List against New Orleans
Scott Miller
Thursday March 4, 2004
If the Gladiators had a list of things they had to accomplish in this game, what would be on it? In no particular order they would be as follows:
- Play an exciting game to please a home crowd.
- Show that defense does count in Arena Football League.
- Improve their record to .500.
- Give an undefeated team their first loss of the season.
- Break their NBC curse.
- Improve special teams play.
- Have Dolezel get his 500th touchdown at home.
Before the game, some VooDoo players went to mid-field to taunt the Gladiators, which apparently raised the level of intensity at the beginning of the game.
“That just set the tone for the game,” Gladiators head coach Frank Haege said. “That got the guys fired up.”
However, the home team stumbled early, which included losing offensive specialist Terrill Shaw to an injury on their first offensive play from scrimmage. New Orleans took advantage of the early problems and jumped out to a 10-0 lead.
Thanks to the defense, Las Vegas stayed in the game and managed to level the score at 17-17 by the end of the first half. The Gladiator momentum continued through the third quarter as Las Vegas built a 38-17 lead. In fact, the VooDoo did not score until the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Despite the late effort by New Orleans, the Gladiators stayed ahead for the rest of the game. However, the lead was not so great that New Orleans could not come back, making for an exciting game at the Thomas and Mack Center.
Throughout most of the game Las Vegas special teams were not noteworthy. Then, with just over twelve minutes left in the fourth quarter, T.J. Hill returned a kickoff 54 yards to the New Orleans 1-yard line. Frank Carter carried the ball into the end zone on the following play, giving the Gladiators a 20-point cushion that the VooDoo could not overcome.
The greatest milestone came during the second quarter when Clint Dolezel notched his 500th career touchdown pass. Despite the tremendous personal accomplishment, Dolezel remained focused on the team’s goals.
“[It is] not near as the good as the win,” said Dolezel after the game. “Hopefully, I am not done there. I’d like to get a thousand.”
If Dolezel does reach that mark, it would make him the first player to do so.
Next up, the Gladiators (2-2) go on the road to play the Georgia Force (2-2) on Sunday, March 7th. With lists in mind, what is on the to do list for the next game?
“You cannot have two fumbles in a football game,” said Haege. “We had guys playing out of position because of injury. We need to make sure they know more than one position.”
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.
