Avengers Prepare for Final Exhibition Against Arizona
Keith Antigiovanni
Wednesday April 4, 2001
“We’re going to go up there and treat this like a pre-season game. We have some young guys we want to take a look at so. We want to stay healthy for our first regular season game,” Avengers Head Coach Stan Brock said.
Both teams opened the pre-season with wins as the Los Angeles trounced the Nashville Kats 40-18 while the Rattlers outlasted the expansion Chicago Rush. Despite Arizona’s mediocre performance against the Rush, Brock still believes that the Rattlers have an excellent, well-coached team loaded with talent. “Playing Arizona is like a measuring stick for us to see how much we’ve improved. Danny White always has great teams so it’s always a challenge,” Brock added.
Last season Arizona swept the season series from the Avengers. In week 5, Los Angeles was blown-out 55-28 as Arizona Rattler quarterback Sherdrick Bonner shredded the LA pass defense completing 16 of 28 passes for 259 yards and five touchdowns. In the loss Todd Marinovich made his debut at starting quarterback for the Avengers. He played well completing 20 of 43 passes for 253 yards and four touchdowns.
In the week rematch at the Staples Center the Avengers played much better and almost pulled off a major upset but fell to the Rattlers 54-51 when fullback Hunkie Cooper scored on 54-yard kickoff return on the final play of the game. Down 34-17, Marinovich rallied LA to a 51-47 lead late in the fourth quarter before Cooper’s game-winning touchdown.
After sitting out against Nashville, Brock indicated that Marinovich might see some playing time. “We might get him in a little bit.”
The defense showed some improvement last week as well. “Our pass defense played much better against Nashville. We’ve still got a ways to go but we’re getting better.”
The Rattlers are coming off a (12-2) season in 2000 and have been one of the top AFL franchises since its inception in 1992. Arizona has qualified for the playoffs eight straight years, won four division titles, earned six final four appearances and won two Arena Bowl titles (1994 & 1997). Danny White enters his 10th season as the Rattlers head coach.
Los Angeles needs to cut down to 24 players by Sunday. They re-signed fullback/linebacker Ed Smith this past week.
“My job for this game is to evaluate players and if we come away with a win then that’s great,” said Brock.
Keith Antigiovanni is a free-lance writer in San Diego, California. He has worked for several local newspapers covering sports, government and business. Keith started writing in 1995 after graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Mass Media Communications from the University of San Diego. Aside from working as a sportswriter he has a side business of providing marketing assistance/research for small businesses and also directs,produces and hosts a regular public access television show on Time-Warner Cable named "San Diego Yesterday". Antigiovanni is also a member of the San Diego Sportswriter Association.
