The arena’s literally on the beach dude.

 

I’m looking forward to attending arena football games at Boardwalk Hall for years to come, walking the boardwalk and kicking it on the beach pre and post-game. Hopefully the 6,139 in attendance for the inaugural game have similar plans, and the league hopes on growing that number as the summer continues and more people are down the shore.

 

“Crowd was great, I don’t know what the numbers were in attendance, but we got good energy off that crowd,” Blackjacks head coach Ron James said. “It got loud especially when the game was hotly contested towards the end and I’m really proud of the way they reacted to our first ever football game here,”

 

“I think our players were very much pumped for the game just because of the history of the building, they didn’t realize just how historic this building is, so it was great to see them react that way,” James said.

 

On the field the Blackjacks battled their fellow expansion compadre the Columbus Destroyers, coming out on top of the highest scoring (lol) game of the weekend 42-35. Blackjacks quarterback Randy Hippeard as usual executed very well, completing 17-22 pass attempts with 143 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added a rushing touchdown on a one-yard quarterback sneak and had no turnovers.

 

The Blackjacks handed the ball off on high motion sweeps to their wide receivers Lamark Brown and Antwan Grant for touchdowns and late in the game rookie defensive lineman Lynden Trail got in the throwing lane of Destroyers quarterback Grant Russell and intercepted the pass for a touchdown.

 

“We stumbled a little bit out of the gate with that bar-ball early and just recovered from that. Columbus came here to play and they certainly gave us everything they had and despite making some stellar plays we were able to rebound and do the things we needed to do to get a victory,” James said.

 

The Blackjacks defensive line really dominated the game with four sacks, a forced fumble and the pick six by Lynden Trail.  Monte Lewis was responsible for three of the sacks and the forced fumble, turning the home opener into his breakout game.

 

“The first sack is always the best one,” Monte Lewis said. “Playing against Philly last week everything’s quick, he’s getting the ball out of his hand quick so we kind of had that itch to get after the quarterback so that first one felt real good.”

 

“Our front four was keying on what the quarterback drop was going to be,” coach James said. “We knew that when he was in three step it was going to be important for us to get hands in the throwing lane and disrupt timing and be more aggressive on the backend,”  

 

“Once we determined that he was trying to drop back on a five step drop then we could really hunt him up so to speak and let our defensive ends get up the field a little bit further. We’ve got some good pass rushers and they’ve got some young offensive lineman, so I think that combination was in our favor the whole night,” James said.

 

The Destroyers also have a young quarterback in Grant Russell, who made his first start in the loss against AC. He played a good amount in the week one loss to Albany but having the full week of reps at practice and a game plan more suited towards him was certainly a plus. Russell went 21-36 with 211 yards and 5 touchdowns with one interception.

 

Russell has displayed a great deal of arm talent, taking shots downfield with great touch and accuracy. The adjustment for quarterbacks coming from outdoor football to arena is always a challenge and Russell still needs time and reps to improve the timing of his throws and his feel of the game. He played in a spread offense in college, meaning he took snaps from shotgun, so the transition to taking snaps under center was an issue in week one, but Russell and center Miles Mason had no issues with the exchange this week.

 

Russell and the rest of the Destroyers are coached by Matt Sauk, one branch of the Ron James coaching tree from the former Utah Blaze staff. Sauk and the Blackjacks head coach worked together from 2011-2013, with Albany Empire head coach Rob Keefe serving as the defensive coordinator as well. Saturday’s game was the first time that James and Sauk met as head coaches leading to an interesting dinner Friday night before the game.

 

“It was weird because he’s also a very good friend, he lives a half an hour from me so I see him a lot in the offseason and his family are great friends. It was awkward having that first exchange as head coaches but at the same time we talked about it last night as friends and said one of us isn’t going to be happy tomorrow but we’ll still remain friends and I wish him nothing but the best every time he plays a game, except for against us,” James said.

 

Sauk was the unhappy friend in the first matchup, but the hometown Blackjacks got to enjoy their franchises first win. Offensively wide receiver Lamark Brown built off a strong week one performance finding the endzone two more times this week. Brown is a veteran in the AFL who had a strong 2017 season when he was with the Tampa Bay Storm. Randy Hippeard, Ron James, and many other Blackjacks were also with Brown on that Storm team.

 

“One of the things that we pride ourselves on is being a team that’s very cohesive and together,” Lamark Brown said. “We break a lot of things down as family and through my years, this is year five for me playing arena, the quicker your team can gel together and really become brothers the better off your team is. Not to really say too much but every team I’ve been on has really been close, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a losing record on any team. We’ve come together and really become brothers to this point,”

 

“I think the strong point of our offense is that we can attack in many ways. We can use our big receivers or our smaller receivers, we have a way to attack everybody and that’s the good thing about our offense,” Brown said.

 

The Blackjacks offense isn’t the only group with a versatile set of skill players, as the defensive backfield has versatility, youth, and a whole lot of potential. Kiante Northington is a rookie who has been assigned the very difficult task of covering the high motion receiver as the middle-man. Northington did play the position last year in the NAL but the adjustment to playing the middle in the AFL is not an easy task. Northington has held his own though being credited with three pass breakups in the win.  

 

“His games been very solid, “coach James said. “I’ve witnessed the fact that he hasn’t given up a big play. We gave up a lot of what I call checkdown plays and plays that were catch and run opportunities, one in which the official picked our guy and they wound up with a big run. We didn’t give anything up over the top with a rookie in that position so I think that’s vital for us, to continue to have him mature and he’s only going to get better,”

 

“We didn’t play Marvin Ross although we could have. We let him heal up this week, he’ll be ready for next week and that adds another dimension to our defensive secondary as well so we’re looking forward to seeing how that translates against a very good Washington team next week,” James said.

 

The Blackjacks will get Ross back after a scary hit in the week one loss, but even down one defensive back AC has a long-time backside corner Laroche Jackson currently playing the jack linebacker spot. Jackson has over 500 career tackles and 29 interceptions mostly coming from his time in Jacksonville as a corner, although he has previously played the jack linebacker position during his time with the Cleveland Gladiators. Jackson has always been notoriously known as one of the most aggressive backside corners in the league and he’s brought that intensity to Atlantic City as well.

 

“I love the way he plays jack because of his energy and knowing that he can play in the secondary should the need arise. He’s very physical, when you have run situations he’s a guy who can step up. We spied him on the quarterback a bunch of times so the quarterback couldn’t run. I knew that was going to be one of the things that he likes to do and one of the things Matt would like to do with him in the goal line area and I thought LJ did a great job,” James said.

 

Next up for the Blackjacks are the 0-2 Washington Valor, and despite the slow start AC isn’t taking the road trip to D.C. lightly.

 

“They’re the defending champs, we have to play a solid football game especially on the road. Arvell’s a talented quarterback, I’ve had him before in 2014 he was the backup to Tommy Grady. Arvell’s a dangerous quarterback and they’re a very good football team so it’s another test for us,” James said.

 

The Blackjacks defensive front will have the added responsibility of trying to contain Nelson, the most dynamic quarterback in the AFL, already with three rushing touchdowns in addition to his nine through the air.

 

“You have to make sure with those mobile quarterbacks to stay in your own rush lane,” Monte Lewis said. “You have to try and keep those guys contained because they can throw it but at the same time they can move around so you just have to be a little more disciplined because they’re not just going to sit back there in the pocket so you’ve got to keep those rushing lanes tight and be a little more zoned in on a guy like that.”

  

“We’re a young team on the road, I think we accounted for ourselves well week one on the road,” coach James said. “We’ve got to get better, I thought we got a little better this week, but we’ve got to be better on the road week three to see the progression we need to have as a football team.”

Harrison Brown is a college student who has been covering Arena Football since he was 12 years old and has been with ArenaFan since 2014. Harrison was a captain of the varsity football team during his senior year of high school and went on to play one season of Division III football in Massachusetts. Harrison has worked for two indoor football teams, in 2018 he was the Director of Player Personnel for the Jersey Flight and in 2016 he was the Color Commentator for the Philadelphia Yellow Jackets. You can follow Harrison on twitter @HarryBrownRusso.