Latta Parts New Jersey’s Red Sea
Tom Ando
Sunday June 3, 2001
New Jersey played in red jerseys for the first time this season, hoping to light the wick of a one-win football team, but it didn’t seem to help, as they couldn’t take advantage of Buffalo’s early mistakes. The Destroyers were sporadic early on, but were able to put the nail in the coffin early in the second half.
“They played hard. They played well,” said Destroyers Head Coach Ray Bentley. “We stumbled around a little bit early on. I thought we had opportunities to put them away before we did in that first half. (We had) a couple of turnovers, and some sloppy things, and we got together at half time and we talked about it, and we need to be better than that. We came out in the second half and we were (better), so that`s a great thing for the team to respond like that.”
Buffalo led at in the second quarter 14-10, and then Brett Gorden’s field goal right before half time would start a string of 23 unanswered points. During that span, Buffalo beat New Jersey with their defensive line, which was key in their increased momentum. “We put it on them pretty good. I thought we had some match-ups that I liked going in,” said Bentley. “We took advantage of those things, and we brought four guys a lot, and they did the things that they need to do to get the pressure on, and that`s a credit to our guys. They fought hard, but we worked at it and got it done.”
Buffalo’ defensive backs consistently knocked down Connel Maynor’s passes. “They played very well tonight in that regard, but I wasn`t happy with our tackling,” explained Bentley. “We were very sloppy tackling in the secondary, so we need to get better at that, and that`s for sure, but the pass coverage, and the jump that we got on the ball, and knocking the ball away, we did a good job of that. We also got our hands on five balls with the front group, and that`s been a point of emphasis for me. Our goal is to get eight a game, and we got five tonight so that`s close. I think that impacts the game.”
The story of the game was Latta’s return that woke up Buffalo’s recently comatose offense, which managed just 14 points in their loss to Arizona last week. Latta would finish with10 receptions for 146 yards and four touchdowns, plus one rushing score en route to a 51-31 victory for Buffalo. Bentley was pleased with Latta’s all-star performance.
 Willie Latta is glad to be back Image courtesy of Tom Ando |
Latta’s five touchdowns and 30 points tied him with Kevin Mason’s records from 1999, while his four receiving touchdowns tied Mason’s record from earlier this season. Kubiak was 21 of 31 for 313 yards and five touchdowns, moving him ahead of Browning Nagle for most passing yards in Destroyers history as well as passing touchdowns. WR/DB Hassan Probherbs had four receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown that covered 39 yards. Backup quarterback Damone Scott, who came in to give Kubiak a rest, was 2 of 3 for 31 yards, and his rushing touchdown of one yard closed out the scoring for the Destroyers.
Buffalo plays their next two games at home against New York and Carolina in games that could make or break their season. The Destroyers have won six straight at the HSBC Arena.
"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.
