Soul surpass 2014 win total with win No. 10 over New Orleans
Harrison Brown
Saturday June 6, 2015
PHILADELPHIA - In their return to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the Soul continued to struggle in the first half but bounce back in the second half and pull off a win versus a lesser team.
Last week the team trailed the Las Vegas Outlaws 21-17 at halftime, and this week went tied at 27. “We were expecting some things from them, we expected zone,” quarterback Dan Raudabaugh said. “We expected them to zone up Kauleinamoku he’s been giving everyone fits.”
Adam Kennedy had a very solid return into action for the New Orleans VooDoo, showing just how much he’s adapted to the indoor game. Kennedy went 27-for-42 on the night with four touchdown. Kennedy also did a very nice job stepping up and moving in the pocket when pressure arrised. Kennedy still shows flaws as made clear by his three interceptions thrown, two of which shouldn’t be considered his fault. Kennedy is the one of the league’s top prospect’s at quarterback, among the likes of Warren Smith in Spokane and Sean Brackett in Las Vegas.
James Romain tied the San Jose SaberCats middle man Ken Fontenette with his ninth interception of the season on Saturday. Romain did a nice job in coverage tonight, while Soul defensive back Kent Richardson was a constant force on the Voodoo’s screen passes with six tackles.
“In my opinion if he’s not the best safety in the league now he will be by the end of the season,” Dolezel said. “He’s grown stronger and more confident each game, I don’t know how you want to attack him, you better throw a perfect ball if you want to attack his way.”
The VooDoo were focused on the short game tonight, constantly throwing screens and short patterns. The team also utilized fakes in the redzone, with constant fake fullback dives, wide receiver pitch plays being ran. The team was very moved the ball down the field slow and effectively constantly putting themselves in red zone situations.
“We’re attacking the scheme of things more than any one player," Dolezel said. “They’re a big trips three team, and they didn’t run any of that because we’re really good at covering trips three. Hats off to them they played well."
Soul defensive back Dwayne Hollis faced coach Dean Cokinos in the PIFL last season with the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks.
“We have to give them credit they came out with a whole new game plan than what we prepared for, so we had to adjust on the fly,” Hollis said. “I thought I’d saw him before, I didn’t know where I’d saw but I’m not gonna lie to you I didn’t know that was him.”
Mac linebacker Beau Bell missed his second week in a row with his back injury. In his place rookie Jake Metz got his second start of the season and had three tackles.
“He’s always going to be day to day with his back,” Dolezel said. “He has good days and bad days, and unfortunately he’s had two bad weeks. Those backs are funny things, I’ve dealt with those in my history of football as well and they’re almost impossible to play through.”
On the last play of the game, Shaun Kauleinamoku took a deep pass from backup quarterback Bryan Randall and ran into the boards and was down banged up after that.
“He looks to be fine, went in and smashed the wall. He’s a flying Hawaiian and he plays the wall well. I think Bryan threw the ball well and they had three timeouts so we couldn’t just run the clock out,” Raudabaugh said. “He’s in there high fiving everyone right now.”
Prior to Saturday’s game, the team traded wide receiver Tyrone Goard to the Los Angeles KISS for future considerations.
“We’d love to have had him, he would’ve fit great with us and if he was in camp he probably would’ve been with us. I wish him the best of luck and I think he’ll do good out there,” Dolezel said.
