ArenaBowl XIV: Just as Billed
Kevin Sheller
Sunday August 20, 2000
On the first series for the Predators, quarterback Connell Maynor was viciously pressured on every play. Most notable was one in which a quick whistle blew the play dead before Nashville OL/DL James Baron intercepted a Maynor desperation flip pass while he was being sacked. Baron jogged easily into the end zone for a score that didn’t count.
Finally, Maynor was given time to throw for one play, and that’s all it took. He found Bret Cooper open in the end zone for the first TD of the game. The word rowdy cannot begin to describe the home fans as the Predators jumped out to a 9-point lead.
 Nashville`s OL/DL James Baron puts pressure on Orlando`s QB Connell Maynor. Image courtesy of Mike Wright |
The next kickoff by Kats kicker Steve McLaughlin was a line-drive directly to OL/DL Matt Storm, who went down on the play with a strained knee ligament.
“I tried to run out of bounds instead of falling on the ground like a smart man should have,” admitted Storm, “I was trying to go for a little more glory and one of their guys came and hit me in the knee.”
Throughout the first half, every time it looked like the Nashville Kats were going to start to gain momentum, they made a serious mistake. A second-quarter fumble by Anthony Hicks allowed the Predators to quickly take a 3-touchdown lead on a pass from Maynor to OS Joe Douglass.
With 5 seconds to play in the second-half, Nashville made an unusual play call. Rather than go for the field goal, a short pass over the middle to WR/DB Jeff Russell ran time off the clock as he went out of bounds ten yards short of the goal line. The half appeared to be over, but a late hit on quarterback Andy Kelly gave the Kats one more chance, and they cashed in on a 5-yard TD to Darryl Hammond.
A largely uneventful 3rd quarter only saw an amazing performance by eventual Ironman of the game, OL/DL James Baron, who, acting as a tight end, took a short pass in the flat, hurdled two defenders and found himself in the end zone 28 yards later.
Injuries filled the second half. Both starting quarterbacks, Nashville’s Andy Kelly and Orlando’s Connell Maynor, both suffered knee injuries only a few plays away from each other. Kelly was out for the rest of the game. Maynor came back.
 ArenaBowl MVP Connell Maynor with the Foster Trophy. Image courtesy of Mike Wright |
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, the IPFL offensive player of the year in 1999, QB James Brown came in for the injured Kelly. It took him a few plays to settle down, and unfortunately for the Kats, he threw an interception to DS Kenny McEntyre during his first series.
When the Predators couldn’t score even a field goal, the first pass by Brown was a 45-yard TD bomb to a wide-open Darryl Hammond, followed by a two-point conversion by WR/LB Cory Fleming, tying the game.
An unusually long drive by Orlando consumed 5 minutes and 28 seconds from the clock. So, with :01.7 seconds left, David Cool was invited back onto the field to win the game for the hometown Predators. He’d already missed a chip shot and an extra point. But the Kats were out of timeouts so Cool didn’t have to think about 19-yard field goal for long before he kicked it to win the game.
“Championship caliber teams always step it up and we did today,” said OS Joe Douglass, “We haven’t been able to put teams away, but it doesn’t really matter because we won. This team certainly turns it on in playoff time. Playoff time is Orlando Predator time.”
So is ArenaBowl time.
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
