Blaze Burn Gladiators
Adam Lieberman
Monday April 2, 2007
In the Arena Football League, momentum always plays a factor. Sunday afternoon was no different as the Utah Blaze improved to 4-1 on the young season by beating the Las Vegas Gladiators 57-47 in front of a quite crowd of 5,416 at the Orleans Arena. The loss was the third consecutive for the Gladiators who remained at the bottom of the division standings at 1-4.
Following a loss to the Arizona Rattlers last week, Gladiators quarterback Shaun King criticized his teammates and the coaching staff for a lack of preparation leading up to the game. The situation which was resolve internal didn’t seem to have any lasting effect this week as Gladiators Coach Danton Barto was ready to face the Blaze.
Despite falling behind 21-3 after the first quarter, the Gladiators fought their way back into the contest taking several leads early in the second half but it was their defense, special teams, and referees that changed the outcome.
The Blaze were 0-5 on 3rd down conversions, but were an amazing 4-4 on 4th down conversions and converted a field goal on the other 4th down attempt.
“We try to get them in 4th down situations and make a big play and again we couldn’t execute,” said Barto.
Gladiators defensive back Eddie Canonico agreed, “It was a huge momentum change anytime you can’t hold them on 4th down and takes the wind out of our sails.”
After taking a 44-40 lead early in the 4th quarter Blaze Coach Danny White tried to catch the Gladiators special teams off guard with on onside kick. The Blaze were successful despite the fact that the Gladiators were in their “viper” formation which is designed for that exact reason.
Gladiators’ wide receiver Joe Douglass, “Even when you put you onside recovery team on the field, you need to execute and we didn’t do that, it’s frustrating.”
The Gladiators frustrations grew a two play later. On 2nd and 10 at the 25 yard line, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was called against the Blaze. The referee stated that it was a 10 yard penalty and 3rd down, however no yardage was ever marked off. It appeared that the referees had called offsetting penalties which would result in replaying the down, but in this situation it was a loss of downs. The Blaze scored on the next play which proved to be the difference in the contest.
Coach Barto was livid as no explanation was given as to why there was no yardage loss. “I still don’t know what happened and that’s the frustrating thing as a coach. I can’t sit there and say the refs coast us the game, but I just want an explanation as to what the penalty was. If it is offsetting penalties than you replay the down and why do they turn it to third down?”
Barto stated that, “The referee came up to me and said ‘I blew it,’ but I still didn’t understand exactly what he had blown.”
On the bright side for the Gladiators, Shaun King who had struggled over the past several weeks looked much sharper. He completed 25 of 37 passes for 287 yards and six scores.
The Blaze were led by Joe Germaine and Siaha Burley. Germaine ended the contest throwing seven touchdowns on 20 of 35 attempts for 340 yards. Four of those touchdowns went to the Burley who was also named offensive player of the game.
The Gladiators return home next Sunday for an Easter match up with the Kansas City Brigade (2-2) at 3 PM.
Notes: Sunday’s contest marked the first game for offensive lineman Tupe Peko after missing the first four games with a pectoral injury…Gladiators leading receiver Kevin Prentiss injured his right ankle on the first play of the second half and did not return to the contest.
