Gettin' his kicks in victory

Tony Mercado
Sunday April 1, 2007

SaberCats kicker shows grit, named Iron Man

Of all the potential storylines I mused before the San Jose SaberCats took the field against the Tampa Bay Storm, none was more unexpected than the one that emerged. 

 
At first, I thought I'd go with the return of former San Jose backup quarterback Stoney Case, tabbed to make his first start of the season against the team that released him last year. The always exciting pass-catching connection of Mark Grieb and Ben Nelson is consistently great for a few graphs. But I was ready to go with how cats are naturally a different breed when cornered, which is where San Jose found itself with a 1-2 record. History told me the players would come out energized, especially against a winless team like Tampa Bay, but who would have thought the fiestiest among them would be a kicker?

Rookie A.J. Haglund made four tackles and recovered a fumble for a touchdown in the first quarter to give the SaberCats a 14-0 lead. Oh, and he also converted on nine of 10 point afters, all of which got him the game's Iron Man award and some of the loudest cheers among the more than 19,000 at the HP Pavilion.
 
"You saw him out there. He should be the Iron Man," said Nelson. "He was making tackles and getting in on all the action. That helped us out a lot and gave us a big boost."
 
"Even though I'm a kicker, I can still go out there and make plays," said Haglund, who despite his youthful appearance, is a seasoned inddoor athlete. He spent the last two years with af2's Oklahoma City Yards Dawgz,  converting 10 field goals and a record 93 percent of his PATs. He led the league in scoring with 146 points, the third highest season total in AFL2 history.
 
On Saturday, Haglund's big fumble recovery so early in the contest helped set the defensive tone for the game. Wow. When was the last time a kicker did that? The play came on the kickoff following Grieb's 33-yard scoring strike to Nelson. The Storm's T.T. Toliver returned the ball 13 yards before being greeted by San Jose's Clevan Thomas, who forced the fumble and gave Haglund the opportunity to scoop the ball and run in for the score.
 
A great play by a great football player. But teammates still couldn't resist joking with their kicker as he stood outside the locker room surrounded by tape recorder bearing reporters, teasing him as "the new celebrity in town."
 
"Aw, they rib me all the time anyway. Mainly with little things like trying to tell me I look fat in my uniform," he said, shaking his head with a smile. "It's the role of the kicker."
 
Actually, Mr. Haglund, I think after that great performance, you just elevated that role significantly. 
 
Other views from the press box
 
Tony's Top Trio

Arena football is always full of action, but here are my picks for the top three key plays of the game.
 
1. Third quarter defensive stand: Down 10 points and positioned at San Jose's 10-yard line, the Storm needed a score to keep pace with the SaberCats. But three plays against a stingy defense got them only seven yards before Terrill Shaw dropped Case's pass on fourth down at the 3-yard line. The SaberCats would score on the next possession courtesy of an 11-yard pass from Grieb to James Roe to make it 69-42 after Haglund's PAT.

2. Marquis Floyd's interception: In the second quarter, Case went deep, only to have Floyd intercept the ball at the SaberCat 4-yard line and return it 46 yards for a TD to push San Jose's lead to 48-28 over their winless opponent.
"There was a lot of talk that they were going to come in here with a lot more passion than us, but people didn't recognize that we were on a losing streak too and that we were going to come out and play with passion too," said Floyd, named the Defensive Player of the Game.

3. Another fumble: The start of the third quarter wasn't good for Tampa Bay as Phil Glover forced the Storm's second fumble of the game. Ronald Jones pounced on the ball at San Jose's 19, giving Grieb all the room he needed to find Rodney Wright on a crossing pattern for the score to give San Jose a 55-35 lead.
 
Speaking of Grieb and Nelson

With the pair hooking up four times for touchdowns Saturday, it's easy to continually label them as the main source of worry for opposing teams. But Nelson is the first to say that defennse better just not focus on him.

Roe and Wright, he said, are equally dangerous and the numbers show the SaberCats are spreading the ball around pretty well. Indeed, Wright had eight catches for 100 yards and Roe had five for 70. Both scored two touchdowns.

"We're not looking to get the ball just to me or whoever, we're just taking what the opponent give us. All three of us are very good and very capable," said Nelson. "The offense played the way we should have been playing all year. And I think that's just a little taste of what you're going to see."
 
Gotta dance

The 2007 SaberKittens made their debut Saturday. Congratulations to the new team: Co-Captains Anette Herrera and Itza Sanchez, returning vets Alicia Gamble, Kim Pena, Charmaine Rocca and Aimee Woodruff and rookies Noni Abdollahzadeh, Meredith Barge, Celia Canes, Jennifer Dauzat, Alexis Kofoed, Krystle Macor, Marqui Martinez, Jennifer Muzio, Christi Pereira and Gina Silva.

Best of luck to the squad for another great season on the sidelines!