Vipers Rally Past Knights
Keith Murphy
Sunday June 13, 2004
Vipers’ head coach, Kevin Guy, blamed his team’s slow start on the weather. “I’ll be honest with you, man. It’s my job to get these guys ready to play, but the humidity over here in Macon is unbelievable. We were in a hotel and the heat was just crazy. So, I think we just had to get back into the flow of things. I thought it was a heck of an effort by the guys; they came out and turned it up in the second, third and fourth quarter. I thought that after the first quarter we really picked it up.
Jerrian James led the Vipers’ attack with 261 all-purpose yards and five touchdowns. Not included in the stat line are two kickoff return touchdowns that were called back due to penalties. James explains why the Knights’ had such a difficult time stopping the speedy Offensive Specialist, “I’m a vet. I’m on a mission. I ain’t trying to be in this league no more.”
Guy said that James is a “playmaker. You have to account for him. But the good thing now is that we’ve got a quarterback now who’s reading defenses. He did an excellent job of seeing the checkdowns and Josh [Kellett] is going to take us places.” On the evening, Kellett completed 21 of 40 for 173 yards and five touchdowns.
For the Knights, Jamaal Garman racked up impressive numbers, rolling up 208 all-purpose yards and scoring three touchowns; one on a 56 yard kickoff return. Quarterback Will Burch also posted solid numbers in his return to the starting role. Burch completed 21 of 33 passes for 205 yards and four touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions.
Another bright spot for Macon was the play of WR/LB Pedy Tehrani. Tehrani caught seven passes for 65 yards and two touchdowns. “I’m new to this league,” Tehrani said. “I’m just trying to learn and see what’s going on.”
With the loss, the Knights fall to 2 and 8. The win improves Tennessee Valley’s record to 7 and 3.
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
