Knights Clobber Wildcats
Keith Murphy
Sunday July 24, 2005
Knights’ head coach Derek Stingley says that this was a big win for his squad. "The win is big because we won in front of the fans at home. We’re going to always take those wins because these fans come out and we put on a show for them and I was glad to see the crowd that I saw here today. [4201, largest crowd of the season.] But to go over .500 that’s another key thing. Now we’ve got the opportunity to stay over .500 for the end of the season and who would have thought that at this time of the year that we would have the record that we have right now?"
Macon came out of the locker room flat; playing like a team that had just fought hard to clinch a playoff berth. As a result the first 25 penalty-plagued minutes provided a clinic in ugly football. "I think what we did was we took South Georgia lightly because of their record and because of what South Georgia did before they played us," Stingley said. "I told them they cannot take a team like this lightly because it was like they had nothing to lose. What they would do was, those guys from South Georgia still have jobs to play for next year. They are still trying to impress some people. Some of their players came to me and said, ‘hey man what are you doing for next year?’ Those guys are putting on their job interviews, so to speak. So, individually, some of their guys outperformed us. That’s why we came out flat thinking that South Georgia was going to lay down and let us beat them. That’s never the case. It don’t matter what the record is. This team plays hard all the time."
Macon began to take control of the game late in the second quarter thanks to two Wildcat turnovers . The first was Marco McGee’s recovery of a South Georgia fumble deep in the Wildcat end which Knights’ quarterback Lionel Hayes converted into a Macon score. The second was Hosea Laney’s interception of a Brian Zbydniewski pass with 54 second left in the first half. Hayes also converted that turnover into a score and, despite flat and sloppy play, the Knights took a 25 – 14 lead into the locker room. That’s when Stingley asked his team for more: "I went into halftime and asked those guys if we could play a perfect game for the second half. I said that we’ve been searching for that perfect game; let’s do it in the second half. They came out and they tried to do it." In the second half, Macon outscored South Georgia 40 to 26.
The Knights’ offense was led by quarterback Lionel Hayes. Hayes was nearly automatic, completing 20 of 25 passes for 288 yards, 7 touchdowns, and no interceptions. Chris Hessel came in off the bench in the fourth quarter and was three for three for 59 yards and a score. Chris Johnson led all receivers, catching 12 passes for 165 yards and 6 touchdowns. Matt Jackson picked up yet another Ironman award, racking up 168 All purpose yards.
Macon’s defense was led, as usual, by Hosea Laney. Laney tallied 8 solo tackles, 2 pass break-ups and an interception on the evening on his way to being named defensive player of the game.
South Georgia’s offense was paced by Brian Zbydniewski who completed just 16 of 35 atttempts for 178 yards and 3 touchdowns. Antoine Savage caught 11 passes for 138 yards and 3 scores.
The Knights enter the final regular season game at Wilkes-Barre with a number of minor injuries. Coach Stingley says that, because of the playoff race, he faces a number of difficult decisions in the week ahead: "We are real dinged up. Guys are dropping like flies right now. Right now we’re struggling and there’s no way for me to rest these guys. I have to play everybody because this is Arena Football. You can’t rest anybody. I thought I could get away with that during this game; but I couldn’t. I had to play these guys because the game was a little too close for me. So, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m looking to win against Wilkes-Barre; but, I want to stay healthy for the playoffs. At this point, I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do."
With the win, the Knights run their record to 8 and 7 and travel to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for this year’s final regular season game next weekend. Date, location, and opponent for their first round playoff game is still up in the air and won’t be decided until after next weekend’s games are complete. With the loss, South Georgia falls to 3 and 12. The Wildcats have a chance to help the Knights garner a first round home playoff game next weekend as they are hosting the Green Bay Blizzard. If Macon defeats Wilkes-Barre and South Georgia upsets Green Bay, and if I am reading the tie-breakers correctly, then Macon would likely host a first round game.
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