Valor Come Up Short in 28-62 Loss Against Gladiators

Saturday July 29, 2017

 Washington eliminated from playoff contention with loss

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Washington Valor (2-11) dropped their final home game of the regular season in a 62-28 loss to the Cleveland Gladiators (5-9). The Gladiators swept the Valor 3-0 this season with their highest margin of victory over the team tonight (34 point deficit).

Cleveland FB Jeramie Richardson scored the first touchdown of the game, putting the team up 7-0 after kicker Drew Basil connected on the extra point. Washington scored a touchdown of their own after WR Justin Wilson caught a pass from QB Sean Bracket and tied the score 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.

The momentum shifted early in the second quarter as the Gladiators went ahead by two scores followed by a safety, leading 23-7 with less than seven minutes remaining in the first half. The Valor fought back as DL James Gordon rushed in for a touchdown bringing the score to 23-14 at the half, cutting the deficit to just nine points after being down by as much as 16.

The second half of the game was on Cleveland’s side as they scored the first touchdown of the second half and held the Valor scoreless throughout the third quarter. In the fourth quarter alone, the Gladiators outscored the Valor 26-14.

KEY STAT: CLE #50 Derrick Summers totaled an AFL season-high 3.5 sacks. That is the most in a game in the AFL since Teddy Jennings of the Philadelphia Soul had 3.5 against the Iowa Barnstormers on June 28, 2014.

KEY MOMENT OF THE SEASON: The Valor totaled 77,288 total fans over seven home games this season for an average of 11,041 fans per game. They led the AFL in both total attendance and average this season.

MVP: Cleveland QB #2 Arvell Nelson (16-26 207 yards, 6 TD)

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Cleveland WR #17 Collin Taylor (5 catches, 66 yards, 3 TD)
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Cleveland LB #50 Derrick Summers (5 tackles, 3.5 sacks (AFL Season High) for a total loss of 18 yards, and a safety)

The Valor will play their final game of the regular season on Friday, August 4, when they face the Baltimore Brigade. The game starts at 7pm and can be seen on Monumental Sports Network.

VALOR HEAD COACH DEAN COKINOS

Thoughts on the game:

“Obviously very disappointing, the door is open for us to build off last week’s win and to stay alive for the playoffs. You know our defense played really well in the first half. But it’s an offensive game and we’ve known all along that we go as the quarterback goes. And we struggled a bit tonight, we missed a lot of open receivers for touchdowns. We turned the ball over, you just can’t do that. Whatever the reason is when you turn the ball over in arena football, it’s all about possessions just like a basketball game. The game got away from us on offense and that put a lot of pressure on the defense. But when you fumble the ball and you throw interceptions you’re not going to win.”

Thoughts on Sean Brackett:

“Sean (Brackett) has been good for us, he’s basically our third quarterback coming in. He’s battled and played some really good games but when things go bad it’s hard on a young guy and it just unravels and he never got back in rhythm. We did the best we can with him and he did the best he could. He battles, he’s tough and that’s part of the growing process. He had a tough night tonight but we did as an offense as a whole.”