Erie Explosion Open Playoffs in Albany this Saturday

Published on June 16, 2011 under Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL)
Erie Explosion News Release


(Albany, GA) - The Erie Explosion will embark on its longest road trip of the season when they travel to south Georgia this weekend to take on the Albany Panthers at the Albany Civic Center on Saturday night in the first round of the SIFL playoffs with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 PM. Erie earned its spot in the playoffs by winning the SIFL Northeast division title and finishing its regular season with a 9-3 record. Albany went 9-2 in games played and finished in second place in the Southern division, one game behind Columbus. Despite Erie winning its division and Albany finishing second in theirs, the SIFL decided that Erie would be the visiting team for this first-round playoff matchup because of regular-season records. The two franchises have never met before, and Erie has not travelled to Georgia to play a game since 2008, when it defeated Columbus 54-48. Explosion fans can follow all of the action live through our USTREAM feed at www.erieexplosion.com, hosted by Joe Criscione and Scott Farrington.

The Erie Explosion, under Head Coach Shawn Liotta in his fourth season with the team, led the league in scoring (70 points per game), passing offense (260 yards per game), turnover margin (+2.1 per game), and pass defense efficiency, and finished in the top four in the SIFL in first downs and quarterback sacks. Erie's record-setting offense features two of the leading candidates for SIFL Most-Valuable-Player in quarterback Adam DiMichele and wide receiver Kevin Concepcion.

DiMichele enjoyed the most productive rookie campaign in indoor football history by completing 55% of his passes for 3,247 yards and 91 touchdowns in 12 games with only seven interceptions. He threw for at least nine touchdowns in five games, including a league-record 12 against Trenton, which broke his own SIFL record of 11 set earlier in the season against Richmond. Three different Explosion wide receivers who will see action this weekend have scored double-digit touchdowns on the season, led by Concepcion, who completed one of the best regular seasons of any receiver in indoor football history. For the year, Concepcion registered 110 receptions, 1,502 yards, and 47 touchdowns (46 receiving), all of which led the SIFL by a considerable margin. Ernest Jackson recorded 13 touchdowns among his 43 catches, and Tirone Morris contributed 51 receptions and a remarkable 25 touchdowns on the season in a variety of ways, including 22 receiving, one rushing, and two by kickoff returns for touchdowns. Defensive back Eric Wicks led the Explosion defense in interceptions with nine, Lenny Wicks had six interceptions in just five games, and Chris Johnson contributed four picks and two fumble recoveries returned for touchdowns. Linebacker Brenton Brady led the team in sacks with 9.5, followed by lineman Troy Blackwell with eight.

The Albany offense is led by quarterback Cecil Lester, the 2010 SIFL MVP. The elusive Lester enjoyed another productive regular season for the Panthers with a completion percentage of 57% and throwing for 2,626 yards and 64 touchdowns in his eleven games. Three Albany wide receivers scored at least 15 times, led by Antwone Savage with 20 touchdowns. Antwonis Cutts led the Panthers with 65 receptions followed closely by John Harris with 61. Albany's offensive line was among the best in the league allowing just ten sacks all season, and defensive backs Demetrie McCray and Levance Richmond combined for 19 of the Panthers' 22 total interceptions on the season.

"Based on what we've seen on film, these are two great teams who will put a lot of strain on the opposing defenses, which should make for an entertaining game. Their defensive backs are all very good, but they haven't seen an offense yet with as many weapons as ours. However, our defense has a tough task ahead of itself as well. Lester and their O-line don't allow him to get hit that much, and their wide receivers are extremely athletic, so our D-backs better be paying attention or they'll get embarrassed. Clearly, their gameplan starts with trying to get as much pressure on DiMichele as possible, so Adam and our O-line need to be ready for that, and we cannot afford any turnovers down there, like we had in our last road game against Trenton. This is going to be a tough road game for us, we do like our chances, but this won't be easy. We're anticipating a large hostile crowd in Albany which the league clearly hoped for when they decided to reward a division winner with a road game in the first round of the playoffs against a team that didn't win its division. That makes no sense, but all we can do now is play who's in front of us, and hope we get a fair shake. The playoffs are the second season and our guys are all very excited to get down to Georgia and take the first step towards winning a championship." commented Explosion head coach Shawn Liotta.

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Southern Indoor Football League Stories from June 16, 2011


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