Cooper-less Destroyers get revenge against Fury
Tom Ando
Monday May 13, 2002
Offensive Specialist Lamont Cooper, who leads the team in overall yards and touchdowns, was rushed to the hospital late Friday night after passing out in his apartment. The preliminary diagnosis is a bleeding ulcer. Without Cooper, the two-time Don’t Blink Player of the Year, the Destroyers certainly weren’t blinking as they beat the Fury 49-21 in honor of their fallen star.
“I really didn’t say anything about it other than last words right before we went out. ‘There’s a hell of a man sitting out there in Millard Fillmore suburban hospital and he’s part of us, so let’s go win this thing for him,’” said Destroyers head coach Ray Bentley. “I don’t know if that even needed to be said, but it was, and the guys responded.”
Overall, five Destroyers receivers Eddie Brown, Jarrail Jackson, Carlos James, Bret Cooper, and Kevin Mason combined 254 yards and six touchdowns. Those numbers were similar to Cooper’s a week ago against Detroit as he was named AFL Offensive Player of the Week.
The Destroyers and Fury met up for the third time already this season, once in the preseason, with the Destroyers coming out on top, and now in back-to-back games split by the two teams. The familiarity was something that Bentley thought worked all too well for to his advantage.
“They weren’t surprising us,” said Bentley. “We got a bead on them. We knew what was coming, and [coach] Weylan Harding did a great job in making the calls and anticipating what was coming, and that started with our preparation through the course of the week. We had our best week of preparation. I know the guys are going to look back at this, because I’m going to tell them, and say ‘look at what our preparation manifested’ so hopefully we can keep that kind of thing going.”
Harding’s play calling on defense helped the Destroyers get to Fury Quarterback Rickey Foggie all day, forcing two fumbles and interception from the 36 year old quarterback, as well as two interceptions from backup Drew Miller.
“We came out tonight and we felt like we had something to prove,” said Defensive Specialist Corey Johnson, who picked off two passes. “We needed to come out and play hard. Tonight I think we came out, we reached down deep, and we did what we had to do. And any time we get pressure like that, it makes our job a whole lot easier. We don’t have to sit there and cover four or five moves, which is hard when you’ve got a guy running full speed at you. Our line and our secondary go hand in hand.”
The defense also scored its first touchdown of the season as veteran David Caldwell jumped on a Foggie fumble in the end zone.
Just before halftime, Bentley made what could have been a costly decision by going for it on fourth down and missing deep in their own territory.
“My thought on that one is: with the clock, with the amount of time left, and I had three timeouts. If we don’t get it, either they’re going to score or we’ll stop them and there will still be enough time left for me to get another possession,” said Bentley. “In that instance, I was confident that my defense would cover my back if we didn’t make it and sure enough they did come up with a turnover. In my mind people may disagree and think I’m crazy, but I thought that was a sound coaching decision, one that I don’t even look back on. I had guys on my own staff looking at me like I’m crazy, but I believe in the things that I just said.”
After the turnover the Destroyers pulled one out of the trick playbook by attempting a fake field goal, and when Kevin Mason had nobody to throw to, he took off downfield with it for 34 yards.
“Now that might have been a little crazy,” said Bentley. “But we work on it, and we work on it, so heck, let’s take a chance on it. And when you have a man like Kevin Mason back there who’s the trigger man, he’s going to make a play, so it wasn’t that big of a gamble in my mind.”
After leading by only eight at halftime, the Destroyers came out and dominated the third and fourth quarters, allowing Detroit to score only once, late in the fourth quarter.
“We came out a little sluggish in the first half and we made up for it in the second half a lot on offense, and a lot on defense,” said lineman Hardy Mitchell. “Overall, I think we did better in the second half, but I think we’ve got some things to work on.”
Mitchell recorded one of the game’s sacks and had constant pressure on Foggie.
“We knew that they weren’t great pass blockers to start off with. We just wanted to keep coming and make Foggie do things, and at the end of the game they put Miller in because Foggie just got rattled.”
To Bentley, the 28-point win was special.
“It was really a gratifying win in that regard because it was a situation where our best player wasn’t with us, and we didn’t know that for sure until this morning that we were dealing with that situation,” said Bentley. “I didn’t say a word to the team about it, other than ‘let’s go out and win one for shorty, and they sure did, they played their guts out. It reminds me of back in my Bills days when Frank Reich would come in, Jim Kelly was a little banged up and everybody picks their game up and we go out and we whip a team, and that’s what happened here tonight. It really is a great testament to the character of the football team.”
Next up for the Destroyers are the Toronto Phantoms, and a chance to claim first place in the division. Whether or not Lamont Cooper will take part has yet to be determined.
"Touchdown" Tom Ando is a free lance writer from South Buffalo, NY and has been covering the Arena Football League in one capacity or another since the 2000 season, when he was 17 years old. Tom Currently writes for Sports & Leisure Magazine in Buffalo covering the NLL's Buffalo Bandits and NCAA Division I football. In 2001, Tom was the only writer in the country to cover the Houston "Travelin' " Thunderbears, where he befriended his mentor John F. "Hondo" Hahn.
