`Cats Hold Off Knights
Keith Murphy
Sunday July 11, 2004
“For the most part it was a heck of a job battling,” said Mike Hold, Knights’ head coach. “When you get those opportunities, the big stops, the opportunities to get the game back and we didn’t. You’ve just got to take advantage of that opportunity when you have it. Two weeks ago against Florida we did. We just didn’t take advantage of the opportunity when we had it.”
Cape Fear head coach, Chris Siegfried, said that he expected a battle. “I totally expected this game after watching tape of them playing the Florida Firecats. One thing that Mike [Hold] does a real good job of is making adjustments at halftime. He kept us off balance in the second half. It’s a shame that their record is 3 and 9 because they played us tough in the preseason and in the first game. Mike’s a good coach and he’s going to turn it around next year, I have no doubt about it. But, did I expect a dogfight? Absolutely. I was hoping that once we got a 20 point lead they would back down a little bit but that’s a sign of good quality players and coaches; they don’t quit.”
Hold pointed to the two costly first half turnovers as the game’s turning point. “We just made a couple of bad reads on defense that stopped some drives. For the most part I thought Will [Burch] hung in there and did a good job, stepped up, and kept on fighting. Those two interceptions in the first half killed us. Especially that second one; we had the guys open and we just had to make the throw. They had one turnover, we had two. If you don’t win the turnover battle, six points cost you and those six points would have been huge. They are a good team, but if we don’t turn the ball over in the first half like that we’re talking about the win instead of the, you know, six point difference.”
Cape Fear quarterback Michael Gluski, a former Macon Knight, said it felt good to return to Macon and pick up the win. “Absolutely. Unfortunately professional football can get kind of nasty. I still talk to coach [Kevin] Porter. It wasn’t a personal thing. I was pretty upset. I kinda felt that I got the carpet pulled out from underneath me in 2002. It worked out for everybody. He was successful that year and I went up to Cape Fear and we were very successful. It’s just one of those things. I had a great time here and I was looking forward to coming back.”
The game featured a battle between quarterbacks who know each other well. Will Burch and Michael Gluski have not only competed against each other in games but for starting posititions and roster slots. Gluski completed 18 of 34 passes for 210 yards, 6 touchdowns and one interception. “I played OK. I got away with a couple of bad decisions early. I didn’t make a couple of throws in the second half that would have opened it up. But that’s arena football.” Burch completed 22 of 33 passes for 205 yards, 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. “He did better than me because he won. That’s all that matters. Statistics and stuff are nice to have, but what really counts in the end is the win-loss column. We lost tonight, but we are going regroup to finish the season strong and we are happy for all the fans who come out to support us.”
With the loss, the Knights fall to 3 and 10. Next weekend they travel to Tennessee Valley. With the win, Cape Fear is 10 and 3 and have won 7 in a row. The Wildcats next game is at Manchester.
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
