Sports stats



Force Game Notes

May 21, 2002 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Georgia Force News Release


QUICK FACTS:
Georgia Force (1-4) vs. Los Angeles Avengers (3-2)
Date: May 24, 2002
Kickoff: 7:30 ET
Site: Philips Arena (16,100)
Series Record: 0-0
Last Meeting: This is the first regular season meeting between Georgia and Los Angeles. The Force defeated the Avengers 51-44 in overtime in the 2002 preseason opener for both teams in Bakersfield, Ca.
Radio: WQXI 790 AM The Zone (David Hubbard: play-by-play and Ryan Stewart: color analyst).
Coaches: Marty Lowe- Georgia (0-0, 1st Year). Ed Hodgkiss- Los Angeles (3-2, 1st Year).

THE GAME:

The Georgia Force return home to Philips Arena to host the Los Angeles Avengers on Friday, May 24 at 7:30 p.m. Georgia is looking to snap a four game losing streak after capturing their only win of the year in the season-opener vs. Orlando 67-49.

Georgia is looking to make a fresh start to season as the team announced on Sunday, May 19 that Head Coach Robert Lyles was relieved of his duties for the remainder of the season and Marty Lowe was hired as the team's new Head Coach. Lowe joins the Force coming from the University of Texas El-Paso were he served as running backs coach and the Miners top-recruiter. Lowe had served as offensive coordinator and assistant coach for the Nashville Kats during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

The Force are 0-2 this season against teams hailing from the AFL's Western Division. Georgia was defeated 53-59 at San Jose on May 4 and lost a 40-51 decision vs. Arizona on May 10. Friday night's contest will be the last home game Georgia will play on a weeknight as the team finishes their remaining three-game home schedule with two Saturday games and one Sunday game. The Force this season are 1-2 at home and 0-2 when they play on Friday nights.

Los Angeles are 3-2 on the season after defeating the Tampa Bay Storm 38-24 on May 17. The 24 points given up by the Avengers defense was a new franchise low surpassing Los Angeles' performance in the season opener on April 19 in which they defeated the New York Dragons 43-25. The Avengers are led by WR/LB Greg Hopkins, who was named game MVP for his 11 receptions for 127 yards and four touchdown effort against the Storm. Hopkins also added an intercepted and three tackles in the game. Hopkins was named the AFL's "Ironman of the Week" following Week 3 of the season.

Georgia is welcomed into this the 16th season of the AFL after the relocation of the Nashville Kats, which brought the team to Atlanta. The Force will look to follow in the winning tradition that Nashville started when entering the league in 1997. Over the Kats five-year tenure in Nashville, the club reached the playoffs in every season, twice reaching the ArenaBowl Championship game in 2000 and 2001.

The Force are beginning a new chapter in the AFL for themselves as the team's name, logos and history are brand new. The Georgia roster consists of 18 players that have traveled South from Nashville to Atlanta. Adding to the roster the Force signed AFL veterans QB Kevin McDougal and QB Donnie Davis from the former Milwaukee Mustangs and selected OL/DL Michael Lawson from the Florida Bobcats with the first overall selection in the 2001 dispersal draft.

GEORGIA FORCE NEXT WEEK:

Georgia travels to the Palace of Auburn Hills to take on the Detroit Fury on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. The Fury are 1-4 this season after going 7-7 in 2001 and reaching the AFL playoffs as the 10th seed during their inaugural campaign n the AFL.

HEAD COACHES:

MARTY LOWE, Georgia (0-0, 1st YEAR): Marty Lowe joins the Force coming from the University of Texas El-Paso were he served as running backs coach and the Miners top-recruiter. Lowe had served as offensive coordinator and assistant coach for the Nashville Kats. Lowe's duties with Nashville included creating and implementing the offensive game plan and coaching the team's wide receivers and quarterbacks. He replaces Robert Lyles who was relieved of his duties after Georgia's fifth game of the 2002 season. Lowe, who joined the Kats coaching staff as an offensive assistant in March 2000 after spending three season as an assistant coach at the University of Louisville, had Nashville's offense clicking on all cylinders in the 2000 playoffs, scoring more than 50 points in each of the team's first three post-season contests to quality for the ArenaBowl. Lowe, who played quarterback at the University of Louisville from 1991-95, spent two seasons in the Arena Football League. He played quarterback for the St. Louis Stampede in 1996 and joined the Texas Terrors. He was a starter at Texas until a knee injury ended his playing career. A native of Chattanooga, Lowe was Mr. Football in Tennessee as a senior at Red Bank High School in 1990. In college, he started 22 consecutive games for the Cardinals, passing for 2,268 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior in 1995. He is one of only four passers in Louisville history to throw for more than 2,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. Lowe joined the Louisville coaching staff in 1997, breaking down practice and game tape. He moved up to offensive assistant in 1998, a position he served in again in 1999, helping NFL prospect Chris Redman post a record-breaking season as the Cardinals' quarterback.

ED HODGKISS, Los Angeles (3-2, 1st Year): Ed Hodgkiss became the head coach of the Los Angeles Avengers on Oct. 5, 2001. Hodgkiss, who had been with the Indiana Firebirds since 1997, was the team's offensive coordinator for three seasons (1999-2001). Last season, Indiana averaged 58.1 points and 301.6 yards per game and advanced to the semifinals of the ArenaBowl Playoffs. While helping the Firebirds win the 1999 ArenaBowl World Championship, Hodgkiss led the Firebirds offense to a league-high 58.7 points per game and finished second in total offense averaging 326.5 yards per game. During the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Hodgkiss served as the wide receiver and special teams coach for the Firebirds. In previous off-seasons (1997-2000), Hodgkiss previous coaching experience includes serving as the offensive coordinator at Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, VA). Other coaching duties have included being a wide receiver coach at Morehead State University (Morehead, KY) in 1995-96 and the offensive coordinator at Montgomery-Rockville Junior College (Rockville, MD) in 1994.

LAST WEEK:

The Georgia Force (1-4) fell for the fourth straight time in five games, as they were defeated 70-62 by the Chicago Rush (3-2) at Allstate Arena on Saturday night. Chicago was led by Game MVP quarterback Billy Dicken, who finished the game with a career-high tying seven touchdowns on 18-of-25 passing for 336 yards. Dicken had established a career-high seven touchdown passes last week against the Tampa Bay Storm. Over the last three weeks he has thrown 20 scoring completions.

The first quarter ended with Chicago hanging onto an early 14-7 lead. Force quarterback Kevin McDougal opened up the scoring connecting with Jarrick Hillery on a 45-yard touchdown pass on the game's second play. The Rush answered with one rushing and one passing score as the first period ended. After 15 minutes of play there were 11 penalties called with six on Georgia and five on Chicago. The Force entered the game having been called for an AFL high 54 penalties through four games.

The Rush offense line, who had not given up a sack all season, gave up their first as Oscar Sturgis sacked Dicken with a little over three minutes remaining in the second quarter. Dicken quickly responded finding Lindsay Fleshman for a 36-yard touchdown pass and Chicago's fourth unanswered score of the game.

Georgia ended Chicago's scoring rush as new Force quarterback Donnie Davis hit Markeith Cooper on a 43-yard touchdown pass to cut the Chicago lead to 28-14. Davis had replaced McDougal on a coach's decision. Chicago kicker Bruce Rienecker's attempted field goal as time expired in the half was mishandled by Tyronne Jones in the endzone and recovered by the Rush's AJ Blazek to give Chicago a 28-point advantage at the break. This was Jones first game of the season as a preseason rib injury had kept him on the sidelines.

The second half started with more of the same as Chicago held to a 27-point lead, 55-28, after three quarters of play. Each team scored on two touchdowns passes in the stanza. Jones rebounded back for the Force being on the receiving end of Davis' two scoring strikes.

The fourth quarter opened with Georgia making their comeback charge as Davis threw his fourth and fifth TD passes of the game. The fifth score was a 14-yard pass to Hillery, who recorded his second touchdown of the game. The ensuing kickoff bounced off the rebound net bar and was recovered by the Force's CJ McLain to bring the score to 55-49 and the game's closest margin since the first quarter. Both teams added two more touchdown scores as the game ended with Chicago claiming the victory.

Davis finished the game completing 21 passes on 26 attempts for 304 yards and seven touchdowns. Chicago's Cornelius Bonner was named the game's Ironman.

GAME AWARD WINNERS at Chicago (May 18)

GAME MVP

WEEK TEAM PLAYER
5 CHICAGO QB BILLY DICKEN

GAME IRONMAN

WEEK TEAM PLAYER
5 CHICAGO WR/DB CORNELIUS BONNER

BUILT FORD TOUGH AWARD (selected by coaches)

WEEK TEAM PLAYER
5 GEORGIA QB DONNIE DAVIS
5 GEORGIA OS TYRONNE JONES
5 GEORGIA OL/DL OSCAR STURGIS

CONNECTIONS:

Force DS Cliff Green was selected by Los Angeles as the first overall pick in the 2000 expansion draft...Georgia WR/DB Scott Thomas attended Azusa Pacific in Azusa, Ca. after stints at Long Beach City College and Cerritos College in Cerritos, Ca...Los Angeles QB Tony Graziani was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the seventh round of the 1997 NFL Draft (204th overall). He played in 18 games in three seasons (1997-99) with the Falcons. Graziani, who started five games and directed Atlanta to one victory, completed 85-of-174 passes for 999 yards and two touchdowns in his NFL career.

THINGS TO WATCH:

WR/DB Ron Carpenter:
- Ranks 2nd in the AFL in MFG return with 134 yards on four returns (33.5 avg.) with one touchdown.
- Ranks 4th in the AFL in all-purpose yards with 711 (142.2 avg.).
- Ranks 10th in the AFL in kickoff return average with 511 yards on 24 returns (21.3 avg.) with two touchdowns.
-Won the AFL's ADT Defensive Player of the Week for his performance vs. Orlando and captured Game MVP honors for his efforts against the Predators.
- Lead the AFL in kickoff return yards in 2001 with 578 yards on 23 returns (25.1 avg.).

QB Donnie Davis:
- Ranks 1st in the AFL in passer rating with a 158.3 rating through five games.
- Completed 21-of-26 passes for 304 yards and seven touchdowns at Chicago despite only playing for the last two minutes of the first half and the full second half of the game.

WR/LB Darryl Hammond:
- Entering his 12th season in the AFL this year tying the AFL career mark for years of service (Sylvester Bembery 1988-2000 and George LaFrance 1988-2000).
- Ranks in the top 2 in AFL in with 496.5 career tackles.
- Ranks in the top 15 in AFL in career scoring with 706 points.
- Ranks in the top 10 in AFL in career pass receptions with 540.
- Has had 6 seasons of 50 or more pass receptions.

WR/DB Jarrick Hillery:
- Over the last two games (vs. Arizona and at Chicago) has had 17 receptions for 239 yards and five touchdowns.
- Last year, became only the fourth player in AFL history to run for 100 yards and have 400 yards receiving in the same season.
- Was named to the AFL first-team in 2001.

FB/LB Travis Reece:
- Ranks 2nd in the AFL in rushing with 80 yards on 18 carries (4.4 avg).
- Captured "Ironman" award in the Force's regular season opener vs. Orlando (4/20) and vs. Carolina (4/26).
- Reece gained 190 yards on 38 carries on the year and captured the AFL's rushing title with Nashville in 2001 and garnered AFL All-Rookie team honors.

• Discuss this story on the Arena Football League (1987-2008) message board...

Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from May 21, 2002


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Georgia Force Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central