Sports stats

Dragons continue surge in front of record crowd

by David Holusha
March 21, 2004 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
New York Dragons


The momentum continues to build in the New York Dragons favor as they won their third consecutive game, defeating the Columbus Destroyers 62-41 on Saturday night before a record crowd of 12,289. The Dragons, now 4-3, have shaken off a 1-3 start that included three straight losses before the start of this current unbeaten streak.

"This win was huge," said head coach Todd Shell. "Every win is big for us. We lost those three in a row and now we've won three. We're right back in the thick of things."

After both teams traded opening drive touchdowns, Defensive player of the game Terrance Joseph had to do some fancy footwork after designated kick returner Lincoln Dupree let the ball slip through his fingers – then scoop it up and quickly flip to Joseph, who turned what could have been a disaster into an acceptable runback to the 12 yard line. On third down, quarterback Aaron Garcia (14-21, 203 yard, 7 TD's) drilled a completion to wide receiver Will Holder (4-72, 3 TD's) moving the ball to the Columbus 22 yard line. Three plays later, Garcia hit Dupree for the TD, putting the Dragons ahead for good.

With the Destroyers QB John Rayborn (21-41, 248 yard, 5 TD's) attempting to pass from deep in his own endzone (the result of a weak runback), emerging two-way force Richmond Flowers (who was named the games Ironman) stepped in front of the intended receiver to easily pick off the pass and run it in for the score. The play underscored how dominant the Dragons would eventually be all game. Despite Flowers Ironman play, Coach Shell wanted to put the focus on his entire team. "You got six of the guys out there playing ironman football," said the coach. "The guys who sometimes get overlooked are the linemen. We put great pressure on their quarterback and protected ours pretty well. That's what it's all about, those guys that play two ways. It's those linemen that are hitting each other, every play, every snap and have to do that for seven or eight minutes straight."

After both sides traded touchdowns again, New York committed one of their few errors of the game when lineman Ken Talanoa was hit with a roughing the passer penalty, giving Columbus a first and goal to go. The Destroyers would enjoy the luck of the bounce when Rayborn's pass would bounce off his intended receivers fingers – straight up in the air – but no Dragon near enough to pick it, and instead fall into the hands of receiver Cornelius White (11-154, 3 TD's) for the touchdown. However, Columbus would pull no closer, as Garcia followed that with a bomb to Holder, in what would turn out to be the QB's favorite spot of the game – the right corner of the endzone. Holder made a particularly athletic catch, pulling it in just before crashing into the side boards.

With just 21 seconds to go in the first half, the Dragons defense would come up big yet again, this time benefiting from a tipped ball. With the Destroyers putting together a sustained drive, Rayborn fired a pass deep in the Dragons zone, but quick reacting lineman Anthony Hutch got his big mitt on the ball, tipping it up in the air. Safety Terrance Joseph completed the turnover by making the pick, giving the ball to New York. With just 14 seconds on the clock, Garcia unleashed an endzone-to-endzone bomb that Richmond Flowers pulled in for the score. It was a dazzling display of firepower as the Dragons ended the half up by 18 points.

"Turnovers are big in this league," said the Dragons recuperating lineman Jerry Sharp. "You have to stop them on their possessions. Now the intensity is picking up. When you get a few stops like that, you know ‘Air Garcia' is going to turn it loose." Sharp should be back in the lineup for the next game. "I could have played this week at around 70%, but that's not really going to help the team the way I want to," said Sharp. "The coaches told me that if you're not really 100%, to take the week off and with the bye week coming up, the 10 – 14 day rest will have me completely ready for the Carolina game". "Jerry Sharp, Tim McGill and Chris Anthony are a couple of guys we have on injured reserve that most likely will be back for the Carolina game and that will be big for us because those guys are pretty good football players," Coach Shell confirmed.

The third quarter saw the Dragons defense continuing their opportunistic play, holding the Columbus offense at bay. Dupree would pick off another Rayborn pass and run it all the way back, only to have it negated by a Rodney Filer roughing penalty. Despite that one call, Filer had his typical solid game, and was used late in the game in the fullback role to gain valuable running yardage helping the Dragons to manage the clock as well.

With each attempted onside kick by Columbus, the Dragons never failed to recover, giving them excellent field position from which to add to their lead. On the Dragons first offensive play of the fourth quarter, Garcia would deliver the ball to WR Cosmo DeMatteo in the "golden zone" (the aforementioned right-side of the endzone) for yet another TD score. Columbus, now in desperation mode, continued to fire the ball deep, but DS Donvetis Franklin went to work, batting away ball after ball, as well as making a pick of his own.

Now working a ball control game, successive handoffs to Filer had the linebacker and sometime fullback rumbling to the 3 yard line. Changing tactics, Garcia then pitched the ball to another LB/FB, Josh White, who leapt into the endzone for the score, who then put up a basketball-style "jump shot" through the goal posts, for punctuation.

With the game solidly in hand, Garcia was then rested and backup quarterback Chris Boden was allowed to run the offense in the final minutes. Coach Shell used this opportunity to give lineman Jermaine Miles a chance to show what he could do in the fullback position. "Were working with Jermaine at the fullback position," said coach Shell. He kind of a tweener there – between a lineman and a fullback. He's a big guy, about 270. If you look at the fullbacks around the league, they're athletic guys that are big guys, and he is one of those guys. We think that might be a spot for him down the road, as he learns. We're trying to find somebody to give us what Chin Achebe did before he got hurt, and Jermaine fits that mold."

New York goes into their bye week next, and then take on the Carolina Cobras on April 4.



Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from March 21, 2004


The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent New York Dragons Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central