Crush Wins Title Rematch, 61-59
February 6, 2006 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Colorado Crush News Release
In a game that was defined by a series of special-teams plays that ranged from the spectacular to the frustrating, it was offensive specialist Damian Harrell who made the difference, tying a career high with five touchdown receptions in leading the Colorado Crush to a 61-59 win over the Georgia Force at Philips Arena on Sunday.
The win pushed the Crush to 2-0 and kept them tied atop the Central Division with Nashville, which moved to 2-0 with a win over Columbus on Friday night. The Force dropped to 1-1 and saw its 13-game home winning streak snapped; until Sunday, the Force hadn't lost a home game at any venue since April 25, 2004 (63-34 to the San Jose SaberCats) and hadn't lost at Philips Arena since June 29, 2002, when the Tampa Bay Storm dealt the Force a 50-40 defeat.
But before the Crush could doom the Force to a rare home loss, the team had to endure a special-teams performance that hit the extremes.
The kicking game giveth and taketh away for the Crush throughout the game. Placekicker Clay Rush missed a pair of extra points after a perfect game a week earlier against the Chicago Rush, but also executed a successful on-side kick late in the first half that Andy McCullough recovered. The kickoff set up a 13-yard touchdown strike from John Dutton to Damian Harrell that put the Crush in front 27-20.
Three plays later, the special teams came through once again when Ahmad Hawkins fielded a missed field-goal try off the right rebound net, sprinted upfield and dashed untouched for a 56-yard touchdown. The closest Hawkins came to being caught was at midfield, when he juked left and moved right, faking out Nelson Garner and Sam Clemons and clearing the way for the score that increased Colorado's lead to 34-20.
But in the second half, special teams went against the Crush and allowed Georgia to tie the game at 41-apiece when Willis Marshall fumbled a kickoff return in the Colorado end zone, allowing Rob Carey to recover for the touchdown that tied the game.
Georgia never managed to take the lead in the second half. Saul Patu scored on the ensuing possession to put the Crush back in front by seven points at 48-41, and then Garner missed an extra point after the Force's next score, keeping Georgia behind by one point. He would miss his next extra point, which eventually forced the Force to go for a two-point conversion after scoring in the final minute, but Matt Nagy's lob pass sailed incomplete.
Colorado then ran out the clock for the win after Harrell knocked Garner's attempt at an on-side kickoff out of bounds.
NOTES:
The Crush wore block-style numerals in a game for the first time in their history ... The win was the Crush's first regular-season triumph over the Force; the teams' last regular-season game was in 2003, when Georgia won 44-40 in the Crush's inaugural game ... Patu's 20-yard run was the Crush's longest since Rich Young ran 20 yards for a score on March 4, 2004 ... Georgia's only lead of the day came at 20-14 in the second quarter ... Colorado's defense forced a three-and-out from the Force in the last minute of the first half; it was the first stop recorded by the Crush's defense this year (the special teams forced a fumble in Week 1) ... Colorado has now scored over 60 points in back-to-back games for the first time since April 3-10, 2005 ... The 59 points were the most allowed by the Crush in a win since the team yielded 69 to Arizona in a 74-69 win on Feb. 19, 2005 ... The win snapped a run in which the Crush had lost three of four road games ... This is the second 2-0 start in the team's four-year history. The Crush has never started 3-0.
Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from February 6, 2006
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