Destroyers Hoping To Shake Rattlers and Roll
Tom Ando
Saturday May 26, 2001
For Arizona, who is 4-2, their stars will shine with players such as Hunkie Cooper, Randy Gatewood, and Calvin Schexnayder, but quarterback Shedrick Bonner will likely not be playing, as he is still bothered by a knee injury.
Buffalo opened the season with all pro caliber players in Bobby Olive, Kevin Mason, Willie Latta, Tony Burse, and Jim Kubiak; all but Kubiak will not be active this week due to injuries. According to Destroyers Head Coach Ray Bentley, the injuries are only a testament to their depth.
“We went pretty good for a while there. We didn’t have too many (injuries), and then it seems like bam, you get hit,” said Bentley. “The ones that hurt are the season-ending injuries. Losing Bobby Olive was a major blow to this football team; it really took us two games to get back on track after that. Losing Burse is another big blow for us. We’ll have to pick up the slack there, and I believe we will. We’ll get Mason back. We got (Bo) Barzilauskas back. We got Motton back. So those ones just test you for a little while. The season-enders, those can change your season.”
Even with all of their injuries, Buffalo has managed to maintain its composure, which results in the number two offense in the league, and the leader in passing yards; Kubiak. Some of the Destroyers success has been the play of their Offensive Specialists like Olive and Reggie Allen. But filling in there this week will be Kenyatta Morgan.
“Kenyatta is a guy who has done it in this league in the past at that position,” said Bentley. “He’s like a little water bug out there. He’s so quick laterally, he makes good decisions, he’s got excellent hands, and he understands what we’re doing on offense. I don’t expect that we’ll miss a beat with him in there.”
Morgan, who played in 1999 with the Portland Forest Dragons is just hoping to go with the flow. “Basically, I feel that I just got to come in, do the job, and pick up where everybody left off,” said Morgan. “I feel like the guys that have been in there have been doing the job and winning, and now it’s my chance. It’s time for me to take over the role of playing offensive specialist and I’ll have to come in there and fill in the gap.”
Despite all of the injuries, Morgan believes that Buffalo’s offense still has enough firepower to win. “I think we’ll continue to strive,” said Morgan. “We’re one of the best offenses in arena football right now, and I feel we’re going to continue to roll on if we continue to execute and do the things we’re supposed to do.”
The Destroyers could be seeking to get even for last season when Arizona knocked Buffalo out of the playoffs, but Bentley claims the team is not vengeance-driven. “I don’t think you can get revenge. I think it’s [an] opportunity that’s lost, but what we need to do is take care of this year’s business. We can’t do anything about last year,” said Bentley. “We want to go win this game because we want to be 5-2, and we want to be in first place alone in our division, and that’s what will happen if we do win.”
"Touchdown" Tom Ando is a free lance writer from South Buffalo, NY and has been covering the Arena Football League in one capacity or another since the 2000 season, when he was 17 years old. Tom Currently writes for Sports & Leisure Magazine in Buffalo covering the NLL's Buffalo Bandits and NCAA Division I football. In 2001, Tom was the only writer in the country to cover the Houston "Travelin' " Thunderbears, where he befriended his mentor John F. "Hondo" Hahn.
