A win for the books
Tony Mercado
Sunday April 23, 2006
When the SaberCats needed a spark, defensive specialist Omarr Smith was there to light the fire.
Good thing too because until his momentum swinging interception of a John Fitzgerald pass in Saturday’s game against the Austin Wranglers, San Jose had been pretty much, well, wrangled for nearly three quarters of football.
Charles Pauley fumbled the opening kickoff. On the ensuing possession, another lost fumble, this time by quarterback Mark Grieb, who then tossed an interception when San Jose got the ball back.
Three times the SaberCats got their hands on the pigskin. Three times they would give it away and Austin would take advantage, posting a 21-0 lead with 1:59 left in the first quarter. The frustration started to show, culminating in an unsportsmanlike penalty on backup quarterback Stoney Case, who berated an official as the teams prepared to walk off the field for halftime. The penalty led to a field goal by the Wranglers, who went into the locker room with a 45-27 lead.
"They came out and hit us in the mouth," San Jose head coach Darren Arbet said.
San Jose needed something to salvage this one before it completely got away. And quick
Enter Smith, who in the third quarter stepped in front of a Fitzgerald pass at the 9-yard line to halt a Wranglers drive. I’ll go on record right now as saying that was the biggest defensive play of the game, if not the season. That’s because from that point on, it was an entirely different contest.
"Omar stopped the bleeding," Arbet said.
San Jose would score off that turnover, an 11-yard strike to James Roe, followed by a successful two-point conversion pass to Ben Nelson to make it 45-35. The SaberCats would end up outscoring the Wranglers 22-0 in the second half until about 7:04 left in the game, when Fitzgerald found Sedri Robinson for six yards.
But by then, it was too late.
With less than 17 seconds left and their timeouts depleted, the Wranglers couldn’t even muster one last play before the final tick. It signaled yet another loss to the ‘Cats for Fitzgerald, who’s never beaten San Jose with each of the four Arena Football League teams he’s played with.
The win was the greatest comeback in SaberCats’ history. It saw Grieb throw his 500th career touchdown and Roe tie a San Jose single-game record with 14 receptions. In so many ways, this game epitomized San Jose’s season. They were down early, yet have stayed together to finish strong.
The SaberCats are now 7-6 and are over .500 for the first time this season. They’ve won four in a row and have got the next two out of three games at home. And they’re in position to grab that fourth playoff seed in the American Conference.
"This game really showed the character of this team," said Grieb. "We have a lot of guys that come to work and love to compete. Win or lose, we’re going to play to the end."
Tony Mercado holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from San Jose State University and spent 10 years as a newspaper reporter in the Bay Area. He now works in the public relations field, but continues to enjoy writing about the local teams and the positive impact its players, coaches and dance squads have in their communities.
