San Diego Faces Playoff-Bound Peoria
Keith Antigiovanni
Saturday June 22, 2002
“They (Peoria) are at the top of their division and one of the best teams in the league. We’re going to have to play darn-near perfect football on both sides of the ball to beat them,” Morris said.
The loss to Hawaii last week dropped the Riptide to under .500 again at 5-6. Despite the loss, San Diego still holds second place in the Western division and controls its own destiny in reaching the playoffs. Obviously the Riptide will need to play much better this week if they hope to keep their current playoff position. Fresno trails the Riptide by one game.
The Riptide will have its work cut out for them on defense as it goes up against the league’s second-rated scoring offense in Peoria. Pirates QB Walter Church is currently the second-rated passer in the af2 completing almost 60% of his passes and 48 touchdowns. San Diego will also have to contend with Church’s top receiving target Cornell Craig who is ranked 4th in scoring with 148 points, 5th in receptions (77) and is averaging over 100 yards(103.7) per game. To the Riptide’s credit the defense has gone from the last ranking to 23rd over the past six weeks.
While the defense has improved, San Diego’s offense has been in a slump. In the first five games this season the Riptide were one of the top-ranked offenses, averaging almost 53 points a game, but have averaged just under 39 points the past six weeks.
What exactly is wrong with the offense?
“We haven’t had the same people in the lineup every week. Its tough on an offense when you have to keep moving people around,” Morris said.
Of course every team has injuries especially this late in the season but the Riptide have been hit hard since week one. They get back two great playmakers tomorrow when OS Marty Graham and DS Ryan Smith return from injury. While the Riptide welcome Graham and Smith back they will have two centers out as starter Jason Henry will undergo season-ending surgery and Nathan Gallow will sit out this week with a concussion. 300-pound OL/DL Trevor Misipeka and FB/LB Brian Berg will fill in at center.
The best individual match-up of this game should be Graham against the af2’s interception leader, Lincoln Dupree. “Were going to go after him and see how good he is. We can’t hold back anymore, we already tried that and it didn’t work. We just have to after them from here on out,” Morris said.
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.
