Bucs Aim At Declawing Panthers
May 14, 2010 - Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL)
Albany Panthers News Release
ALBANY, GA (May 14, 2010) - After a busy front office week, the Louisiana Swashbucklers (2-3) of the Southern Indoor Football League finally get to make some noise on the field when they travel to take on the Albany Panthers (4-0) this Saturday night in the first of back-to-back match ups.
Since their last game thirteen days ago, the Bucs have had a long time to devour that overtime loss suffered by the hands of the Wildcatters. In that time, the Swashbucklers stayed busy during their bye week re-hauling a front office and roster that has limped out to a disappointing 2-3 start. In the bye week, the club replaced their head coach with defensive coordinator Michael Warren and brought back former head coach Darnell Lee, formally of the IFL's Alaska Wild, to serve as the offensive coordinator and Vice President of Operations.
The Bucs disappointing 2-3 start has been attributed to the defense giving up 52 points per game along with lack of pressure on the quarterback, only eight sacks through five games. The club has also been playing undisciplined ball having already committed 54 penalties, most in the SIFL. Louisiana hopes to reverse some of those numbers with an influx of former players coming back to Lake Charles via of the Alaska Wild. Several players, including defensive back Damian Huren, defensive lineman Bryant Mason, fullback Kendrick Perry, and wide receivers Damian Henderson and Henry Hunter all expect to play in this weekend's match up against Albany.
Albany comes into the contest limping after a defensive struggle against the Lafayette Wildcatters this past weekend. In their 42-26 win over Lafayette, Panthers quarterback Cecil Lester suffered an injury that is likely going to keep him out of this weekend's game against Bucs. To provide more quarterback depth, Albany signed former quarterback Andrico Hines. An arena veteran, as most recently as 2008 Hines played for the South Georgia Wildcats in 2008 and spent last season with AF2's Bossier-Shreveport.
Lester is not the only with the injury bug, newly signed wide receiver Antwone Savage is likely to miss this weekend's game with an injured foot and receiver Clifton Raffe is battling through a sore knee. The defense has been picking up a lot of the slack as the Panthers defense has held opponent to 13 and 26 points respectively in their last two games. In those two wins, the defense has gathered eight sacks and seven turnovers holding opponents to just 185 yards of total offense.
Saturday's match up will be the first of a two-game stint with the Panthers owning home turf for this weekend and the Swashbucklers hosting Albany next weekend in Lake Charles on Saturday May 22nd. To track this weekend's game, log on to www.southernifl.com and follow the live twitter updates along with the live scoreboard feature.
Southern Indoor Football League Stories from May 14, 2010
- Catters Return Home And Await Crunch - Lafayette Wildcatters
- Bucs Aim At Declawing Panthers - Albany Panthers
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