Conquest travel to face Manchester Wolves Friday

April 28, 2004 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Albany Firebirds News Release


Albany, N.Y. April 28, 2004 – The Albany Conquest will travel to face Northeast Division opponent Manchester Wolves on Friday (April 30) at 7:30 p.m. at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H. The Conquest have lost their first three games of the 2004 season, one of which was against the Wolves, a 47-34 loss on April 16 at the Pepsi Arena.

Manchester sits in third place in the four-team Northeast Division at 1-3, while the Conquest are in last at 0-3. Both teams hope to gain some ground on the first-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers who are 3-0. Cape Fear Wildcats are in second place at 2-1.

The Albany Conquest still hold a 5-2 all-time series lead over the Wolves dating back to 2002. Of the Conquest and Wolves' seven meetings, three games have been decided by a touchdown or less, including two of their three meetings last year.

In the teams' previous meeting on April 16, the Conquest turned the ball over seven times and Manchester QB Chris Sanders was 26-of-37 passing for 238 yards with six TD passes. Manchester rattled off 21 unanswered points to take a 35-13 lead with 3:32 remaining in the 3rd Quarter. Albany mounted a comeback pulling to within seven points making the score 41-34 following a D Bryant (QB) touchdown pass to Tony Locke (OS) with 5:20 remaining in the game, but Manchester quickly responded with a 10-yard rushing score from Reggie Robinson (WR/DB) to tarnish Albany's hopes of a come-from-behind victory.

"Manchester is a solid team with some offensive fire power and a defense that creates turnovers," said Albany Conquest Head Coach Steve Matthews. "We turned the ball over way too many times the last time we played and we obviously can't do that again. I have seen a lot of improvement out of our team in the past two weeks and we are a team that is playing with a lot of confidence," added Matthews.

The Albany Conquest are second in arenafootball2 in passing offense, averaging 285.0 passing yards per game. QB Gus Ornstein is 52-of-90 passing for 754 yards with 16 TDs and five interceptions. Bryant is 7-of-12 passing for 126 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. In the Conquest's first three games of the season, seven different players have caught TD passes, led by Jamie Ware (WR/DB) and Locke, who each of whom have caught five TD passes.

All Conquest games can be heard live on 104.5 The Buzz (WABT). This Friday's game can be seen on tape delay on UPN Capital Region at Noon and 11 p.m. on Sunday.

Albany Conquest fans can purchase tickets, including a new "Pick 4 Ticket Package with Bon Jovi," at the Pepsi Arena box office, by visiting www.albanyconquest.com or by calling 518-487-2081 or 518-487-2085. In addition, individual game tickets can be purchased through TicketMaster by calling 518-476-1000.

The Pick 4 Ticket Package offers fans the ability to select four of the Conquest's remaining six home games, including the July 23rd game featuring the Bon Jovi Concert.



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