Soul Finish Aggregate Series, Look Ahead to ArenaBowl 32
Harrison Brown
Monday August 5, 2019
The Philadelphia Soul defeated the Washington Valor 48-41 to formally punch their ticket to ArenaBowl 32 in Albany. The series was all but over last week when the Soul defeated the Valor 69-33 in game one. The Soul had a thirty-six-point cushion in the aggregate scoring which led to a competitive postseason game that was essentially already determined. The final aggregate score of the series was 117-74.
With the playoff series win the Soul will face the Albany Empire in ArenaBowl 32. The Soul are 1-2 in their previous meetings against the Empire, most recently dueling in the final week of the regular season concluding with a 72-27 blowout loss for the Soul.
Philly took that loss personally and responded with a huge win over the Valor in game one. The Empire used the momentum from their explosive regular season and demolished the Baltimore Brigade in both games of their series.
The Soul and Empire both removed some of their starters in the final meeting, including both teams starting quarterbacks. The last time they met in a game that both teams left their starters in, the Soul won 54-43 in a headline win for their season.
“There’s no pressure on us, it’s all on them,” Soul Quarterback Dan Raudabaugh said of next week's ArenaBowl matchup. “They haven’t won one (championship,) they had the great season, they’re hosting it, there’s no pressure on us. We’re going in there with our ears pinned back and high flying,” Raudabaugh said.
ArenaBowl 32 will be the Soul’s fifth trip to the championship since Raudabaugh and head coach Clint Dolezel joined the organization in 2012. The Soul are a veteran led team and there’s still a handful of players from the 2016 & 2017 ArenaBowl runs.
“That’s the beauty of the vets we’ve brought back, who have been there and done that with us.” Soul head coach Clint Dolezel said. “You always try and bring your core group back and keep them intact, and we have. Romain in the middle on the defensive side and Dan on the offensive side with Money Reynolds and Aaron, I like our flow and what we’ve got going into it offensively,” Dolezel said.
Dolezel is referring to wide receivers Darius Reynolds and Aaron Wascha, who both spent a majority of the regular season not at receiver. Reynolds was injured in week one and upon returning spent the entire regular season at jack linebacker. He returned to receiver with a three-touchdown performance in game one of the playoffs. Wascha was placed on injured reserve after week five and wasn’t removed until the week leading up to playoff game two.
“I wanted to get Aaron some playing time and make sure he was healthy before we went into the ArenaBowl. I didn’t want him to go to the ArenaBowl and for some reason he wasn’t ready, he goes down on the third play and we’re out a player. I wanted to see him with some action this week,”
“They onside kicked a lot, and our game plan wasn’t to have him in the red zone. Lonnie’s been there and done well for us so Wascha didn’t get to play a ton, but he made some plays when he did,” Dolezel said.
Wascha played in the first meeting against the Empire in week three, but he didn’t appear in either of the other matchups. Reynolds played jack in both of the later season meetings, meaning the Empire haven’t seen the Soul’s trio of Reynolds, Wascha and Darius Prince since last season.
The key to the Soul’s success may come down to generating pressure on Empire quarterback Tommy Grady. Grady was only sacked twice this season, a league low. Empire center Ryan Cave was named the AFL’s Offensive Lineman of the Year, and he along with guard Jordan Mudge and fullback Mykel Benson were named first team All-Arena. Moqut Ruffins was named to the second team list but had an equally impressive season.
“We know it’s going to be an uphill battle trying to get pressure on Grady,” Clint Dolezel said. “They do a good job protecting and he’s a big ole boy back there, he sits and picks you apart. We’ll have to look at the game plan and see what we need to tinker to try and get some pressure on him,”
“We know we can’t give up one play and done drives against Albany. With their big offensive line, we can’t have them fresh in the second half. When we played them at home, we made them run quite a few plays in the first half and started getting after them in the second half,”
“Grady is unbelievable. If you don’t get pressure on him, you’re going to have a hard time. It’s going to be a shootout as long as you hold serve offensively. The last three games they’ve played have been pretty darn ugly. We’ve got to put a good game plan together and go execute it,” Dolezel said.
The matchup between the Soul secondary and the Empire receivers has the potential to be an exciting battle as well. James Romain was named the AFL’s Defensive Back of the Year, and Malachi Jones was named the Wide Receiver of the Year.
Quentin Sims led the AFL in receiving touchdowns - Dwayne Hollis was named a second team All-Arena defensive back - Colin Taylor and DJ Stephens are established veteran receivers, as is Soul DB Torez Jones who had a huge playoff series against Washington.
The Soul and Empire ArenaBowl should be a high-flying matchup, with subjectively the league's top two teams meeting for a shot at the trophy. ArenaFan will have extended coverage leading up to and following the game, so stay tuned folks.
Harrison Brown is a college student who has been covering Arena Football since he was 12 years old and has been with ArenaFan since 2014. Harrison was a captain of the varsity football team during his senior year of high school and went on to play one season of Division III football in Massachusetts. Harrison has worked for two indoor football teams, in 2018 he was the Director of Player Personnel for the Jersey Flight and in 2016 he was the Color Commentator for the Philadelphia Yellow Jackets. You can follow Harrison on twitter @HarryBrownRusso.