Soul Prove To Be The Beast Of The East With Win
Harrison Brown
Monday May 23, 2016
PHILADELPHIA- The Philadelphia Soul (7-1) capped off their regular season games at the Wells Fargo Center with a huge win against the Orlando Predators (7-1.) The win places the Soul ahead of the Predators in the the American Conference due to the head to head record between the two teams.
“Wins are hard to come by in this league and we will take the win anytime we can get it,” Soul head coach Clint Dolezel said. “This is just a credit to this organization and finding the talent that will go out and fight week in and week out.”
The Soul came into the game with momentum after defeating the Arizona Rattlers for the first time in franchise history last week. The Soul have had three consistent receivers all season in Darius Reynolds, Ryan McDaniel, and Shaun Kauleinamoku.
The Predators came into the City of Brotherly Love undefeated and in first place of the American Conference, rolling behind great play from their defense and Quarterback Randy Hippeard.
The Predators strongest position may be the secondary, which shouldn't be a surprise with former AFL defensive back Rob Keefe at the helm. With middle man Varmah Sonie, long time Soul cornerback Kent Richardson, an All-Arena jack linebacker in Terence Moore, and corner Paul Stephens, the Jungle is home to one of the best groups in the league.
The Soul’s quick three step offense seemed to hurt some of the ball hawking secondaries game. Reigning MVP and Soul quarterback Dan Raudabaugh only had seven passes fall incomplete, while completing 20 others and accounting for four touchdowns.
The Predators secondary was forced to come up and make tackles on the Soul receivers and Fullback Jeramie Richardson instead of being able to sit back and make plays on the ball.
Speaking of Richardson, the long time AFL Veteran has broken out in the Soul offense. With almost double his previous career high in carries, the seventh year player seems to be transitioning to the full time fullback role well. Previously, Richardson would get most of his reps at defensive end and mac linebacker, and come in for designed running plays with the other six teams he has played for.
Due to the Democratic Convention and renovations coming to the Wells Fargo Center, the Soul will have to play home games in Trenton New Jersey, and Allentown Pennsylvania. The other six games will be played on the road, and it's likely if there was a home playoff game it would be played in Allentown. The Wells Fargo Center would be ready for the Soul if they were to obtain home field advantage for the ArenaBowl.
“Those other two games will be home games for us as well, we know we’ll carry well and have a good crowd, and we play well on the road so I'm kind of looking forward to that.” Clint Dolezel said.
If this was in fact the final game at the Wells Fargo Center in 2016, the crowd of 12,127 should be pleased with the big win against the Orlando Predators.