Albany Conquest Game Notes

Published on May 5, 2003 under arenafootball2 (af2)
Albany Firebirds News Release


QUICK FACTS:
Albany Conquest (3-1) at Cincinnati Swarm (3-2)
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2003
Kickoff: 2:00 p.m. EST
Site: U.S. Bank Arena (14,000)
National Anthem:
Coin Toss: Head Referee
Officials: Not Available at this time
Broadcast: Teamline Services (Internet broadcast via www.albanyconquest.com)...Bill Callahan
Series Record: 1st Ever Meeting
Last Meeting: N/A
Streaks: ALB – WON 1 WBS – WON 3
Coaches: Pete Costanza (3-1, 7-13 overall, 1st season in Albany) Chris MacKeown (3-2, 1st season in af2)

THE STAKES: The Albany Conquest re-gained sole possession of first place in the Northeast Division with a 68-49 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, combined with a Mohegan loss at Rochester. Albany (3-1) is ½ game ahead of Mohegan (3-2), with the Pioneers (1-4) and Brigade (1-4) sitting behind them in a tie for third. The Conquest is currently (2-1) on their early season "Spring Swing" away from the Pepsi Arena. With Mohegan having lost two games in a row since defeating the Conquest on April 18th, and Wilkes-Barre and Rochester struggling early on this season, the Conquest can control their own fate heading into their last seven out of ten at home if they can sneak two more wins on the road before returning home on May 23rd to face Birmingham.

THE SERIES: 1st Ever Meeting

THE IFs:

If Albany defeats Cincinnati, it would ...
• Give the Quest a 1-0 series record with the Swarm
• Give the Quest a 3-1 road record in 2003
• Give Pete Costanza his fourth victory as head coach of the Conquest.
• Give the Quest their second consecutive 4-1start.
• Keep the Quest in first place, ahead of Mohegan. ALBANY (3-1, Won 1)

HEAD COACHES: Pete Costanza enters his first season as head coach of the Conquest. In 2002, Pete turned around a 0-16 Colunbus (GA) Wardogs team and finished 4-12, including having the league's #5 ranked defense. Costanza, a New Jersey native, brings over seven years of arena football coaching experience to the Capital region, which includes stops with the New Jersey Red Dogs, Roanoke Steam, Norfolk Nighthawks, Iowa Barnstormers and the Wardogs. Costanza has coached every position in arena football and will be responsible for calling both the offense and defense for the Conquest in 2003.

Chris MacKeown was introduced as the first head coach of the Swarm on November 14, 2002. MacKeown brings a variety of football experience to Cincinnati. He served as an assistant coach with the Indiana Firebirds (AFL) for the past two seasons. Prior to that, he spent time with the Carolina Rhinos (af2), as a player scout, and was also the head coach of the Dayton Skyhawks (IFL). In his ofur previous years of coaching professional football, Coach MacKeown's teams have always made the playoffs.

LAST SERIES MEETING: 1st Ever Meeting

YOUR TEAM INJURY REPORT:

Pos. Name Injury Status WR/DB JEFF HIGGINS Shoulder Long Term IR OL/DL DOMINIQUE SMITH Knee Long Term IR OL/DL LOU VEGA Back Short-Term IR OL/DL RICH BARLETTE Ankle Short-Term IR

THIS WEEK'S QUOTES:

QB RYAN VENA, on scoring on 10-out of-11possessions against Wilkes-Barre: "We wanted to put it in the endzone every time to show the rest of the division and the rest of the league that we weren't a fluke to win the division last year. I threw the one interception, or else we would have been perfect."

MILESTONES:

• The Corey Hill Watch
af2 Career Numbers
Receptions (278)
Receiving Yards (3,037)
All-Purpose Yards (5,201)
Scoring (338 points)

• QB Ryan Vena has 315 career rushing yards and 3,856 career passing yards.

DROPBACK: The Conquest got back on the winning track last Saturday night, defeating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, 68-49, at the First Union Center. Game MVP Ryan Vena completed 28-of-32 passes for 285 and eight touchdowns. Vena, who had his best performance of 2003 while completing passes to seven different receivers, also ran for a score while getting his team back into first place in the Northeast Division. WR/LB Adriel Linyear scored on three touchdown receptions and OS Corey Hill led all receivers with 13 catches for 115 yards and chipped in with two scores. ADT Defensive Player of the Game, DS Elijah Beamon, held Wilkes-Barre's usually potent threat Cosmo DeMatteo to just six catches and one score.

FORWARD MOTION: The Conquest will finally finish their early ‘Spring Swing" next week in Rochester, NY against the Rochester Brigade. Playing five out of their first six games on the road, the defending division champs are looking forward to returning home to the Pepsi Arena to play seven out of their final ten games. Six divisional games highlight those final ten games and only one of them is on the road, so if the Conquest can finish this road trip with only one loss, like they have now, they will be set to control their own destiny in an effort to make the 2003 ArenaCup playoffs.

TEAM NOTES/TRENDS:

Elite Company: The Conquest is currently the only team in af2 that has held their opponents to under 50% completion percentage. The pass defense of the Conquest, currently ranked 3rd in the league, has only given up 735 yards through the air in four games (183.8 yards passing per game).

Keep Your Flags...For Now: After recording a season-high 14 penalties for 99 yards in their week five loss to the Mohegan Wolves, the Conquest got a little discipline back in order as they committed just five penalties for a total of 33 yards against Wilkes-Barre. Currently, Albany has been flagged 39 times for 285 yards through four games.

Good Rating: The Conquest and Quarterback Ryan Vena are currently 2nd in af2 in passer rating (120.3), behind only the Cape Fear Widcats. Vena's 120.6 QB rating, ranks him 5th in af2, but several teams have had more than one signal caller play so their team rating is several points lower than the Conquest. Vena has taken every snap for the Conquest in 2003 except for one.

Record-Setting Night: Saturday night at Wilkes-Barre the Conquest set a new scoring record. The 68 points scored was the most ever in the team's short two-year history. Albany managed to score on every possession, with the exception of their second drive of the first quarter when Ryan Vena threw just his 2nd interception of the season in the Wilkes-Barre endzone.

PLAYERS/MATCHUPS TO WATCH:

Cincinnati OS James Scott vs. Conquest Secondary: Scott currently ranks 4th in af2 in receptions (39) and receiving yards (512). He has scored 11 receiving touchdowns, while averaging 13.1 yards per catch. The league's 8th leading scorer will face perhaps his toughest test of 2003, when Albany DS's Elijah Beamon and John Stuart aim at keeping their #3 ranked pass defense in tact. Beamon has been named ADT Defensive Player of the Game in two out of four games thus far this season, while Stuart has been in the league top ten in breakups all season long.

Conquest QB Ryan Vena: Coming off his best performance of this young af2 season, Vena will look to exploit an expansion team that features two rookie defensive specialists and has given up 21 touchdowns through the air through five games. While also ranking in the league's top ten in rushing, vena knows that his arm will need to be sharp to make a run at the af2 playoffs.

Cincinnati QB Christian Batcheller: Batcheller, who was named af2 Player of the Week two weeks ago, comes into this week's game featuring a boisterous 131.11 Quarterback Rating. In four games, he has thrown 16 touchdowns to just two interceptions. His 72.0% completion percentage puts him just ahead of Albany QB Ryan Vena, who has completed 69.9%.

KEY DATES IN TEAM/LEAGUE HISTORY:

May 10, 2002 – The Albany Conquest move to (4-1) with a 41-35 win over the Mohegan Wolves. Game MVP Ryan Vena threw four touchdowns, all to Corey Hill, and ran for the eventual game-winning score.

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