Hills' Elite Eight Leads Sharks Past Predators

Adam Markowitz
Friday May 27, 2016

ORLANDO -- Have a night, Joe Hills.

Odds have it, you've probably never heard of the man who holds the record for the most touchdowns in a game in AFL history. Kevin Prentiss played in the league for just five games, but in one of the five he scored nine TDs to set the league record. You'll probably have an easier time remembering the only other man the AFL has ever had to pull down eight or more TDs in a game.

Hills was simply outstanding on this night. He accounted for eight of the nine touchdowns scored by the Jacksonville Sharks and was the ultimate difference-maker in a 59-56 upset of the Orlando Predators at the Amway Center.

There was just never an answer for anything Hills brought to the table on this night. Standing at 6-foot-4 and lining up against 5-foot-8 Sonie Varmah for much of the night was just flat out not a fair fight. When the Predators played off of Hills, he caught passes over the middle of the field and scored. When they tried bump and run coverage, he bulled through the contact and scored. When they tried chipping him near the end zone then sending some else at him, he flat out jumped over everyone and scored.

In totality, Hills had 15 catches for 173 yards and eight trips to the end zone. It was the 60th consecutive game in which Hills scored a touchdown, 18 shy of the league record currently held by Damian Harrell.

Hills became the third man in the history of the AFL to score at least 48 points in a game. Prentiss and Eddie Brown have the league record with 54 points. Brown also had a game with eight total touchdowns in 2000. In both cases with Brown, only seven of his scores were as a receiver.

Hills has become the first wide receiver this season to hit the 1,000-yard mark. He's sitting on 83 receptions, 1,079 yards and 30 TDs, all of which lead the league. Should Hills stay on this pace, he could challenge the all-time record for TDs in a season of 61.

The game itself wasn't a thing of beauty for sure. Randy Hippeard looked like he had a decent game at 26-of-37 for 274 yards, but he was picked off by Greg Reid twice and generally looked off for much of the night.

Penalties didn't help this game along any. Both teams had 14 infractions for a total of 206 yards, and that doesn't even include all of the offsetting penalties and the ones which weren't accepted.

The lone highlight for Orlando has been the constant this year. Brandon Thompkins had 11 catches for 131 yards and two TDs to go with 205 yards of kick returns. His 336 all-purpose yards was the second most in the AFL this season to his 337 against Cleveland earlier this year. Thompkins now has 2,105 all-purpose yards in 2016 and is on a pace for 3,742, a mark which would set the AFL record currently held by P.J. Berry (3,708 yards in 2011).

The Predators definitely have some questions to answer after getting beaten by each of their main conference rivals in consecutive weeks. On the surface, 7-2 is still good enough for second-best in the conference and the third seed in the all-in AFL playoffs of 2016. However, Orlando has been beaten and beaten a lot more soundly than a pair of one-score games suggest in consecutive weeks, and it now has to travel to the West Coast to take on the Los Angeles KISS.

Jacksonville just seems to keep playing to the level of its competition. The Sharks should've beaten Orlando earlier this year at home and took care of business rather comprehensively on Friday night. Parlay that with the win over Philadelphia on the road and what should've been a home win against Arizona, and you've got a team which has the look of one which could be headed back towards the ArenaBowl.

Still, two of those "should be wins" were losses, and that paired with a bad collapse against Cleveland still has the Sharks at just .500. They've got a home date with the Soul next week which could be telling for the rest of the year.

The Predators and Sharks will meet in three weeks in Jacksonville to decide the regular season series. If Orlando is still slumping heading into that game, all of a sudden, that might be a duel which could end up being quite crucial for playoff positioning.