Fiery Season Opener Begins a New Rivalry Between Philly and AC
Harrison Brown
Sunday April 28, 2019
“We just settled in, you’ve got to survive the first half and we did. We scored last and we got the ball coming out, took advantage of that and tied it up,” Philadelphia Soul head coach Clint Dolezel said. “We got a couple turnovers which swung the momentum, and a lot of guys got a taste of the fact that you’re never out of this game and you’re never far enough ahead in this game, so this was a good experience for a lot of guys,” Dolezel said.
“You can’t get any more chippy than that for two teams who don’t really know each other. There’s a lot of veterans on the other team too, veteran coaching staff. They’re a new team but they’re a very experienced team, they may have more experience than we do to be honest but that’s kind of the direction we wanted to go, and we feel fine with the rookies we have in,” Dolezel said.
A key turning point for the Soul was during the second quarter when Atlantic City was leading 20-7 and on the doorstep of the endzone and an even larger lead. Blackjacks quarterback Randy Hippeard attempted to throw an out route in the endzone when Soul defensive back James Romain jumped the throw and took it fifty yards for a touchdown. The coast to coast touchdown gave the Soul a huge spark and gave Romain the franchise record for all-time interceptions.
“That came from film study, I’d gotten beat twice early in the game, so I knew I was being a little bit too aggressive,” Soul middle-man James Romain said. “They hit me with a double move on the goal line, they tried to cross face the whole time so I was thinking if they’re trying to cross face the first time seeing me they might try and throw a little wrinkle in there and throw an out route. The receiver televised his route a little bit too early before the ball was hiked and I caught a beat on it and I took a nice little angle on it and picked that thing and took it to the crib,” Romain said.
“It’s always a blessing when you can set a record, being in this organization for seven years and coming from behind the guys like Rayshaun Kizer, to break a record like that it means a lot to me, it’s always surreal to be solidified in history. I know the next guy coming up, my name's going to be at the top of that list so it feels good,” Romain said.
Romain wasn’t done with one pick-six and after the halftime intermission he added another, this time for twenty-three yards and the Soul’s first lead of the night. Romain’s dominance led to him being named the player of the game.
“The first one was the momentum changer that got us back in the game, it’s hard to run away from somebody but we were on the verge of that happening to us because things weren’t working for us,” coach Dolezel said. “The momentum truly changed those two interceptions, I’ve never seen it stick in his hand like that, he has good hands but those were two tough catches, bullets and he caught them and took it to the house I mean that’s James to a tee, once you get the ball in his hands he’s tough to go down he’s been our return guy before and he definitely was our MVP today,” Dolezel said.
Offensively the Soul were led as usual by Dan Raudabaugh and the patent pending Dolezel three step offense that emphasizes the quarterback making a smart but fast decision and getting the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible. Raudabaugh as usual was very quick with his delivery and completed a high percentage of his passes.
The most impressive stat from the offense is the fact that the offensive line allowed zero sacks on a night when two out of the teams four offensive lineman had left the game before halftime. First rookie center Jahlil Mathis-Ellis injured his wrist and was forced to leave the game, and in the second quarter veteran offensive lineman Neal Tivis was ejected from the game after an altercation with Blackjacks nose guard Micanor Regis.
“We kept it pretty vanilla, we had some ideas of what they might do but it’s arena football the defense is handcuffed by the rules,” Soul quarterback Dan Raudabaugh said. “We thought they might do some things, they pretty much played off man a lot of the game to see what we had too, we were feeling each other out,” Raudabaugh said.
“We put ourselves in a tough situation and poor Jahlil hurt his wrist, think he went into surgery already and Neal uncharacteristically gets thrown out of the game. Neal’s my roommate and he’s very polite and you wouldn’t think of that but as you can see those first game, I don’t want to say jitters but your juices are flowing,” Raudabaugh said.
The Soul were forced to improvise along the offensive line using defensive lineman Jake Metz at the tight end position and shifting versatile offensive lineman Phillip-Keith Manley inside to center. Metz had previously played tight end in the 2016 season in a similar situation and caught a touchdown during that game. While he didn’t catch any touchdowns this time, he was extremely strong in pass protection and didn’t seem confused at all when the Soul ran slide protection.
“I like to be able to think I can play multiple positions, if a guy goes down in this sport someone's got to step up so coach called me and that’s what I had to do, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to win,” Soul lineman Jake Metz said.
“We rep a lot of snaps with the centers, even guys who aren’t necessarily going to get in the game at center,” Raudabaugh said. “Manley is probably the most athletic offensive lineman in the league, he’s slimmed down, I think he lost twenty five or thirty pounds so we’d love to have him at tight end because of his athletic ability, that only makes us more dangerous but he was able to step in there and really lock it down for us and then we’ve got our fullback whose really coming into his own for us too. We’re going to be physical, y’all want to play physical ball we’re ready,” Raudabaugh said.
The fullback coming into his own that Raudabaugh is referring to is Adrian Ferns, a second-year player who had three rushing touchdowns in the season opener. Last year Ferns scored four rushing touchdowns during the entire season, so Saturday’s game was certainly Ferns best display in the AFL yet.
“Ferns in camp has been my MVP,” coach Dolezel said. “He was a rookie last year and we used him not as much as I’d have liked to, but he came in this year the man and he’s played like the man, he’s going to play in this league as long as he wants to, he’s tough to stop for a yard I guarantee you that,” Dolezel said.
For the expansion Blackjacks taking the loss in their first game as an organization wasn’t the planned outcome but there was certainly a lot of positives to take from the inaugural game. The explosive start that Atlantic City opened the night with showed they were prepared for the week one game versus the Soul.
“The most positive thing is we have a lot of rookies who performed at a high level,” Blackjacks head coach Ron James said. “When you get all those guys coming in their first game and making plays and contributing, I thought that was something that brought us a lot of energy especially the special teams with our kickoffs. Our kickoff return had a couple of opportunities to take some returns back and we didn’t quite finish there, so that’s what it’s all about getting better and progression. For an expansion team we’re looking at progression for what we’re doing, I think we came in here and accounted for ourselves well and now we have to go home and figure out game two,” James said.
“We were certainly ready, you could tell that from the go our guys were ready they were intense and prepared, I just think that had we gotten that onside kick to get another possession we might have really put some pressure on them, but it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go,” James said.
James returned to the AFL after a year north of the border as a senior analyst for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL, but the long-time arena football coach felt back at home between the walls on Saturday night.
“It was awesome to be back out there it really was. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to and the excitement of being back on the field this year was momentous for me, it brought back a lot of memories. There’s slight rule changes and things that have gone on for the progression of the league and I just love the direction we’re headed in,” James said.
The Blackjacks will move forward to a week two matchup against the AFL’s fellow expansion team the Columbus Destroyers. Both teams head into the game 0-1 as the Blackjacks will look to get their first win at their home opener at Boardwalk Hall. May 4th’s game will be the first time the venue has seen arena football since 2015, when the Soul hosted a one game event called the “Boardwalk Bowl.”
“It’s been great, we’ve got good support from the local people and we’re just trying to make sure the local community knows about us and will turn out next week for our home opener. It’s a work in progress just like anything else but to be able to get this thing going, I think a lot of the higher ups like George Manias and Ron Jaworski did a tremendous job to even get this off the ground, we’re looking forward to seeing what we can put together,” James said.
The Soul will head out for a rematch of last year’s semi-final playoff series versus the Baltimore Brigade. The Brigade topped the Soul in both playoff meetings and appeared in last season’s Arena Bowl.
“We don’t like Baltimore,” Soul defensive back James Romain said. “Not going to sugarcoat it we don’t like them. We’re trying to punch them in the mouth that’s it, that’s all we need to do, go out there and punch them in the mouth and they’re going to lay down,” Romain said.
“They are who we think they are, last year was a fluke. Play a team six times you’re supposed to get the upper edge. They don’t run regular arena stuff over there, yeah I’m talking and I hope y’all see this, we’re coming to punch y’all in the mouth next week. It’s going to be a good matchup they’ve got some good talent, I’m just fiery about it saying punching them in the mouth but it’s going to be a good game. I love playing against Baltimore,” Romain said.
