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Arizona Rattlers

Rattlers Snakebit in the Snake Pit 66-63

by Andrew Nordmeier
March 21, 2005 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Arizona Rattlers


If the Arena Football League needed a contest to show first-time fans what the game can be, this was it. The Arizona Rattlers and Las Vegas Gladiators slugged it out for 60 minutes, had 11 lead changes, and the game came down to the final two seconds.

That was when Las Vegas quarterback Clint Dolezel's ninth touchdown pass of the night hit offensive specialist Marcus Nash in the back of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown in the Gladiators' 66-63 win over the Arizona Rattlers (1-7) Saturday night at America West Arena. The win puts the 5-3 Gladiators in first place in the Western Division, a game up on Los Angeles and San Jose. Nash finished with nine catches for 160 yards and five touchdowns which led AFL receivers this week.

For the second straight week, Arizona lost by three points and was in it until the final play. The Rattlers have dropped seven in a row since opening the season with a 58-38 win over Grand Rapids.

The second half was the high-flying football fans of this league have come to know and love. The only time a team didn't score on a possession in the second half was when the game ended.

Vegas started the half up 27-26 and Dolezel opened the second half by hitting Coco Blalock for a two-yard touchdown strike and an eight-point Vegas lead at 34-26. The Rattlers stormed back with a Germaine to Randy Gatewood connection to make it 34-32 and a two-point coversion pass to offensive specialist Siaha Burley knotted the score at 34.

Dolezel and Nash hooked up to put Las Vegas back up by a touchdown with 11:32 left in the game but Germaine hit Burley another tying touchdown, this time at 48 all.

Things seemed to turn the Rattlers way when Mark Tucker blocked an extra point for Arizona when the Gladiators went up 54-48 on Joe Douglass' touchdown catch. Germaine hit Burley with a 31-yard bomb to put Arizona back up by one at 55-54 with 87 second left.

Douglass caught another strike from Dolezel with 45 seconds left to put Vegas up 60-55. The Gladiators tried a two-point conversion run by Frank Carter ran into a brick wall named Phil Glover and the conversion failed. Glover lined up Carter from about five yards away and smashed him into the sideline boards just inches shy of putting Vegas up by seven.

The Rattlers crawled back into the lead with a Glover touchdown run and a Gatewood two-point conversion had the Rattlers sitting pretty with 32 seconds left until the final drive.

The game started fast and furious with the Rattlers marching down the field for a quick 6-0 lead as the extra point was missed. The lead last a few second as Blalock took the ensuing kick back 56 yards to put the Gladiators up by a point.

This was supposed to be a matchup of star quarterbacks and offensive specialists but Rattlers star quarterback Sherdrick Bonner left the game in the first quarter with a sprained knee and didn't reutrn. That left Burley to play catch with backup Joe Germaine.

The rest of the first half was, in a word, ugly.

The Rattlers missed another extra point, were stopped on fourth and goal from the six-inch line, and fumbled the ball away inside the Las Vegas 10-yard line late in the half. The only way it could have gone worse is if Germaine's fumbles, all three of them, weren't recovered by his team. The Gladiators weren't much better as Dolezel was picked off twice in the half and had a couple passes deflected away.

Points were still scored as Germaine hit Burley for a four-yard touchdown pass to make it 12-7 Arizona. La vegas quickly responded with Dolezel to Nash for 31 yards and a 13-12 Vegas lead. Tom pace plowed in from a yard out midway through the second to put the Rttlers back in front 19-13. A shovel pass touchdown to Douglass put the Gladiators on top again 20-19. Minutes later Germaine hit Pace with a five-yard pass to put the Rattlers back on top 26-20. The lead would only last 32 seconds before Nash caught his second touchdown of the night to give Las Vegas the 27-26 lead at the half.

Arizona won the battle in most numerical categories except for the one on the scoreboard. The Rattlers out passed the Gladiators 309-280 and outrushed Las Vegas 29-0. Arizona went eight-for-nine in the red zone and won the time of possesion battle by almost five minutes but it wasn't enough. Dolezel finished with an impressive 31-of-40 passing effort while counterpart Germaine had a decent 17-of-24 night for 238 yards and six scores. Burley caught 10 balls for 132 yards and four scores in the losing effort.

Up next, the Rattlers head to Nashville to take on the Kats March 26th while Las Vegas hosts San Jose.

Notes:The win was the first time the Las Vegas franchise has ever won in America West Arena (1-3)...Arizona ran the ball 13 times in the game...Arizona and Las Vegas colide again in the regular-season finale on May 22.

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Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from March 21, 2005


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