Destroyers Ready to Make the Run
Tom Ando
Friday July 6, 2001
The first opponent is the Toronto Phantoms, a 5-6 ball-club on a two-game winning streak. A victory would put them right back into the thick of the situation.
In week one, the two teams matched up for an exciting ball game that came down to the final seconds, where the Destroyers sealed a 61-54 victory.
“We probably played one of our most complete games against them this season. It was the opener,” said Destroyers head coach Ray Bentley. “I go back and look at it on tape and that was a gutsy effort on the part of our football team. We won it at the end, and I think we trailed throughout that whole game until the very end.”
Destroyers receiver Kevin Mason was a big contributor in that game. He had 10 catches for 128 yards and a touchdown. Mason hasn’t played a down for Buffalo since May 18, when he sprained his ankle, but will return this week, along with lineman David Caldwell to give the team a big boost.
“It helps because Caldwell, I believe, is our best lineman and I believe that Mason is the best receiver. We’ve got some good guys back,” said Bentley. “Mason and (Jim) Kubiak have a little thing and Kevin was one of the leading receivers in the league when he got hurt and Jim was throwing the ball to him. We’ve got that back.”
Toronto has also dealt with a big injury to QB Pat O’Hara, but backup Chad Salisbury has filled in solidly, earning Bentley’s respect.
“He throws as good of a deep ball as anybody in this league,” said Bentley. “So our challenge is not to allow them to make plays over our head. We’ll make them catch it in front of us. We’ll punch them and make them work their way down the field. If we can do that we’ll be successful, and we want to get pressure on Salisbury. And we did so last year when he played here and we want to have him revisit those memories.”
Bentley also thinks highly of Toronto’s receiving corps.
“I think they are a very deep football team at the receiver position,” explained Bentley. “They’re out standing. They’ve got Damian Harrell, Ty Law. They’ve got Kerry Brown, and he’s also an excellent receiver. They have a very talented receiving group, Charlie Davidson. You take those four guys, it doesn’t get any better in this league.”
If the Destroyers can beat the Phantoms, the team will be in as good a spot as Bentley believes they’re already in.
“I told the football team this, and I believe it’s true. We’re on the doorstep of accomplishing the things that we want to accomplish. We’ve got basically a three game season for the Buffalo Destroyers right now. We’ve got three big games and if we win those three we’ll be in first place of our division,” said Bentley. “We might be in a share for first place, but we’ll be in first place of our division. We have a great chance to be a top four seed. We’re two games out of that with three to go, and definitely if we win the last three we get a home playoff game. So we’re in pretty good shape as far as being where we want to be at the end of the season, but we have to do that. We have to finish that; we have to close the deal.”
In order for Buffalo to win, Kubiak has to come up big, but his coach has no doubts.
“Jim Kubiak is going to be just fine. He’s played pretty well throughout the year. He’s had a little bit of some ups and downs with some things,” said Bentley. “But our anticipation is that he’s had enough experience now and he’s with the mix of guys now that’s going to help him be successful.
“I’m real excited to see the offense get going, we practiced very well this week, and I’m anxious to see Jim Kubiak.”
"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.
