Soul Survivors
Jason Moyer
Monday February 14, 2005
The Soul controlled the game through the first 59 minutes, maintaining leads of 17 points on two separate occasions. But the Kats used their onside kicks effectively to claw its way back into the game, before the fatal fumble.
Philadelphia won the opening coin toss, took the ball and scored on a Steve Smith 6 yard pass from Tony Graziani. After Nashville’s Gabe Amey dropped a wide open pass in the end zone, the Soul extended their lead to 14-0 on a 2 yard touchdown run by fullback Marvin Brown.
The Kats appeared to have an opportunity to get back to an even possession game when Jarrick Hillery caught a 15 yard pass with four seconds left in the first half making the score 28-21. Nashville had hoped to go into halftime down only one possession and receiving the second half kickoff.
Steve Smith, however, took a pitch from Keita Crespina on the ensuing squib kick and burst through the middle of Nashville’s kick coverage for a back breaking touchdown and a 35-21 halftime lead for Philadelphia.
Head Coach Michael Trigg talked about Smith’s play, "He brings quickness and game breaking abilities that we had with Tyronne Jones last year. The thing we’re trying to get is to have them on the field at the same time, if at all possible."
Philadelphia had an opportunity to widen their margin when Arkee Thompson intercepted Leon Murray on Nashville’s first possession of the second half. The Soul’s drive faltered and had to settle for a Derek Schorejs 22 yard field goal. Philadelphia had their largest lead at 38-21.
After a Nashville touchdown cut the lead to ten, Tony Graziani hit Steve Smith on a 45 yard pass to extend their lead to 17 points for the second time, 45-28. Graziani had tripped over Eric Gohlstin pulling out from center and heaved the ball 30 yards from a prone position hitting Smith in stride for the score.
On the Kats next offensive drive, Dan Alexander came out of the backfield and hauled in a 15 yard touchdown for Nashville to cut the lead to 45-35. The Kats also caught a break when Keita Crespina was ejected from the game for making contact with an official during a skirmish after the play. Philadelphia had lost fullback Marvin Brown earlier in the game with an injury and were forced to play two position players the entire fourth quarter.
"You get a player who gets ejected or hurt; it puts you in a tough situation to make guys play the whole quarter. They get a little bit tired. The other team keeps trying the onsides and pecking away. You play real hard for 59 minutes and learn real quickly you can lose very fast too in 30 seconds." commented Coach Trigg on losing the two players.
That’s almost exactly what happened to the Soul in the final quarter. With a 52-35 lead, the Soul began to look winded. Gabe Amey, trying to make up for his first quarter drop, caught a 13 yard touchdown to cut the lead to 52-42. After Derek Schorejs missed a field goal attempt, Nashville scored again to cut the lead to four, 52-48.
With 2:24 left in the game, Nashville attempted their fourth onside kick of the game. This time, kicker Gary Kral recovered for the Kats and put his team in a position to steal the victory from the Soul.
Coach Trigg appeared to be relying on his defense to maintain the lead for his squad. With the one-minute timing rules in effect, Philadelphia allowed the clock to run and not use their time outs. Trigg got exactly what he was looking for when Marlion Jackson scooped up Dan Alexander’s fumble to preserve the lead. Penn graduate Rob Milanese salted the game with a 22 yard pass from Graziani with three seconds remaining in the game.
The Soul took advantage of many mistakes by the Kats hung on to win a close game, something they had trouble doing last season.
Inside the game:
Tony Graziani completed his 1000th pass in his Arena Football League career Sunday. When asked about his accomplishment Graziani replied, "It proves that I’m old. A little longevity, but it’s great any time you reach accomplishments like that especially during a win, it’s cool."
Looking ahead:
Next week, the Soul travel to New Orleans to take on the Voodoo.
When asked about the matchup Coach Trigg replied, "Looking at Andy Kelly’s stats, his completion percentage is very high and he takes care of the ball. He’s got a real good group around him that won 11 games last year. It’s gonna be a tough test for us. I’m excited about going down there. They have a good crowd; it’s supposed to be a really tough place to play."
Jason Moyer is an elementary school teacher in the western New Jersey area. He is an avid follower of the Arena Football League and has been covering the Philadelphia Soul with ArenaFan.com since 2005. Jason resides in Whitehall, PA with his wife and daughter.
