Desperados-Rattlers Rivalry Gets off to a Bang
Keith Antigiovanni
Friday April 19, 2002
Rattlers Head Coach Danny White has seen his share of rivalries in his football career when he played with Arizona State against the state rival Arizona Wildcats and from his days with the Dallas when the Cowboys and Redskins played each other twice a year. “Rivalries don’t just happen. You don’t plan them but we’ll see what happens. Dallas played well. They have some good veteran players,” White said.
The seasoned Rattlers, as expected, established success early on scoring touchdowns on three of their four first-half possessions. What wasn’t expected was how the young Desperados responded with a scoring drive on their own each time on Andy Kelley touchdown passes to Dialleo Burks and Andy McCullough. Dallas also had a field goal by Jason Wells in the first half. Arizona led 21-17 at the half.
In the second half the Rattlers upped their lead to 24-17 on a Chris Sailer field goal. Dallas responded again behind backup quarterback James Kubiak. He led the Desperados on two more touchdown drives to put Dallas up 30-24 early in the fourth quarter.
The Desperados got the ball back but the Rattlers defense forced a fumble. A few plays later they took the lead for good 31-30 on a touchdown pass to a wide open Hunkie Cooper running down the middle. Dallas failed to score on its next drive but its defense again stepped it up when it stuffed Arizona on four downs in its own territory. Two plays later though disaster struck when third-string quarterback Snyder’s pass was tipped as Chris Horn made a diving catch and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown. The extra point put the Rattlers up 38-30.
Again, Dallas refused to quit as the Desperados struck quickly on a 2-play drive culminated by a 24-yard Snyder touchdown pass to Shannon Culver. The two-point conversion was stopped by the Rattlers as the noise from the over 10,000 fans became defeaning.
The onside kick attempt failed giving the Rattlers possession deep in Dallas territory. Arizona scored quickly with less than 25 seconds to play to seemingly put the game away. Dallas hung in there and kept the fans on the edge of their seats when a pass-interference penalty on the Rattlers gave Snyder another chance at tying the game but his “Hail Mary” pass fell incomplete. “I was pleased with our performance. We won the game,” White added.
On Saturday open the season on the road as the Rattlers travel to San Jose to face their biggest rival, the Sabercats. Dallas plays its first game against the Carolina Cobras.
Keith Antigiovanni is a free-lance writer in San Diego, California. He has worked for several local newspapers covering sports, government and business. Keith started writing in 1995 after graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Mass Media Communications from the University of San Diego. Aside from working as a sportswriter he has a side business of providing marketing assistance/research for small businesses and also directs,produces and hosts a regular public access television show on Time-Warner Cable named "San Diego Yesterday". Antigiovanni is also a member of the San Diego Sportswriter Association.
