Soul hope to push Quarterfinals winning streak to three versus Gladiators
Harrison Brown
Friday August 1, 2014
They don’t have to contain Cleveland’s home town baller LeBron James from dropping 60 points. They don’t have to worry about Johnny Manziel running all over the field, while continuing to be able to throw the ball down field on them. They have to worry about Shane Austin, an AFL MVP candidate, and Dominick Goodman one of the league’s top receivers. The Philadelphia Soul will take on the Cleveland Gladiators on Saturday at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland Ohio.
The Gladiators and Soul have had great battles this year, with two games ending in the last seconds of the game. The first game the Soul lead for most of the game, before losing a 17 point lead in the last minute. Then, the Gladiators quarterback Shane Austin scrambled around the pocket like the Browns quarterback across the street, and found Dominick Goodman in the endzone for a touchdown with 0.8 seconds left. In the second game the Soul and Gladiators had a back and forth game which came down to the last seconds. After a kick that landed in the seats, falling just below the bottom upright of the field goal post, Shane Austin once again scrambled out of the pocket and threw the ball all the way across the field to have it tipped of James Romain’s hand and fall into Dominick Goodman’s for the win. Maybe the Soul do have to worry about a quarterback running all over the field, while still being able to throw the ball deep.
But those two games seemingly are forgotten about now, as a whole new season starts. The postseason. “Win. Win at all costs.” The AFL’s all-time leading rusher Derrick Ross was short and sweet with his comments about Saturday’s game. Ross seems to always make his mark in important games, just look at the first game of the years rushing stats.
Both teams have alumni from each other, with Soul defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator Rod Miller a former Cleveland assistant, Bryan Robinson a member of the 2010 Gladiators team, while Rudy Cerami and Jason Jones were both on the Souls roster this past year. While Jones was on the roster for just training camp this season he was on the 2013 roster that fell short in the ArenaBowl last year. Cerami was on the roster during a majority of the regular season before being released and subsequently picked up by Cleveland.
Both teams lost players to an NFL opportunity this week. The more publicized one is Mario Norman, Gladiators defensive back signing with the Baltimore Ravens, but Soul lineman Wayne Tribue is working out with the Chicago Bears sometime this week. The Soul signed Ryan Blaszczyk, a veteran offensive lineman who has spent time with the team the past three seasons. Tribue went onto league suspension this past week, if he signs with the Bears he will go onto other league exempt.
The game will be a close hard fought battle. The Gladiators seem to be this year’s team of destiny, going 17-1, and pulling out multiple buzzer beater touchdowns for the win. But it’s hard to forget about a team like the Soul, the team that’s gone to two consecutive ArenaBowl’s. It’s hard to say whose faced more adversity this season, while the Soul have been forced to deal with losing games they clearly should have won, but the Gladiators have been forced to defy the odds and win in last second games. Going into the game the Gladiators have the edge, based on the Soul’s rough outing last week against Pittsburgh. But its not as big of an edge as you’d expect for a 17-1 team, vs. a 9-9 team.
