Knights Use Black Magic to Chalk Up 80 Points vs Cudas
Keith Murphy
Saturday May 18, 2002
That defining moment happened at the end of the first half. Thanks to a fumble return for a touchdown and a safety, Pensacola held a 38 – 25 lead. Instead of panicking, the Knights calmly stepped up their play and regained control of the game. A 30 yard John Rayborn to Gabe Amey touchdown pass with just under forty seconds to play cut the lead to 38 – 31. Byron Douzart was credited with a safety after a blocked Pennsacola field goal attempt rolled through the end zone. With 12 seconds left in the half, Macon had cut the lead to 38 – 33. After the free kick, a long pass and a penalty gave Macon the ball on the Pensacola one with one second left in the half. Byron Douzart punched the ball in to give the Knights the lead for good. Douzart’s play earned him both the Iron Man and defensive player of the game awards.
Porter says that his team stepped up to that challenge and seized their moment. “To have the ball on the one yard line and say, ‘hey we’re going to run the ball. This is our moment. We need to make it happen right now. Then, in the second half, our guys just continued to play.”
Knights’ quarterback John Rayborn was named the game’s MVP after completing 15 of 20 passes for 238 yards and six touchdowns with only one interception. Rayborn also ran for one score. He credits much of his success to the play of his offensive line, “To tell you the truth I think I got hit one time in the game. The only time I really got hit was when we fumbled and I was trying to go make the tackle.”
Offensive coordinator Tres Sullivan was pleased with his unit’s play. “Tonight he [Rayborn] had a lot of time. The line did a great job up front. I don’t think they laid a hand on him. When they do that John’s got time to look around and find some open receivers. They tried to shut us down on defense playing the bump and run but our receivers did a great job of making adjustments.”
Kevin Porter hoped that Rayborn’s efforts against Pensacola are the sign of things to come. “He’s a tremendous football player. He’s a very good quarterback and I think that tonight was one of those nights when he was really throwing the ball well. I hope that this is the kind of play we can expect from him.”
Macon’s defense also shifted into a higher gear in the second half. “It’s kind of my fault,” Porter explained. “Sometimes, as a coach, you can try to be too smart. We played a lot of zone coverage in the first half and they were dinking and gashing us here and there. At the end of the second quarter and the entire second half we didn’t play one snap of zone. Sometimes you’ve got to overcome the coaching.” Porter’s shift to man coverage increased the pressure on Pensacola’s quarterback producing a sack and holding the Barracudas to only 27 second half points.
The win pushes the Knights’ record to 5-2. The 80 points is a franchise record. Knights’ owner Beverly Olson says she is very pleased with the team’s performance, “It’s very, very exciting. I just wish more people could see it. I don’t know why they’re missing all this fun in Macon.”
The Knights’ get a long week to prepare for Saturday’s game at in-state rival and division foe Columbus. That’s followed in two weeks by a rematch with division leader Augusta.
Dr. Murphy has nearly 20 years of media experience ranging from radio to the Internet. He has served as webmaster for two AF2 teams and the football team at Fort Valley State University. He is a professor at FVSU and directs www.bunniwerks.org, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization. He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Murphy is also serving as a first party editor of af2 stories for ArenaFfan. For more information about Dr. Murphy see: www.keithmurphy.info
