Georgia Force Game Notes

Published on February 18, 2003 under Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Georgia Force News Release


QUICK FACTS:
Buffalo Destroyers (2-1) at Georgia Force (2-1)
Date: February 22, 2003
Kickoff: 7:30 ET
Site: The Arena at Gwinnett Center (11,200)
Series Record: Georgia leads series 1-0
Radio: WQXI 790 AM The Zone (David Hubbard: play-by-play, Chuck Oliver: color analyst). WPLO 610 AM RadioMex (Jose Medellin: play-by-play, Marcelo Godoy: color analyst).
Coaches: Marty Lowe- Georgia (7-5, 2nd Year). Ron Selesky- Buffalo (2-1, 1st Year).

THE GAME:

The Georgia Force hosts its second straight home game when the Buffalo Destroyers visit the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Saturday, February 22nd at 7:30 p.m. The Force looks to win back-to-back home games for the first time in club history and keep its record perfect in the new Arena.

Buffalo is welcomed to the South after defeating the Arizona Rattlers 49-45 last week for their second win in a row. The Destroyers began the season falling 36-54 to the Grand Rapids Rampage and claimed its first victory of the season beating Carolina 44-16.

GEORGIA FORCE NEXT WEEK:

The Force heads back out on the road when its travel to The Staples Center to face the Los Angeles Avengers on Sunday, March 2nd at 3:00 p.m. Los Angeles currently sits atop the Western Division with a 3-0 record. The Avengers lead the all-time series against Georgia 1-0 after claiming a 74-53 win at Philips Arena last season in Marty Lowe's first game as head coach of the Force. The Force-Avengers contest will be shown regionally on NBC.

CONNECTIONS:

Force kicker Steve McLaughlin earned second team All-Arena honors as a member of Buffalo last season...Georgia OL/DL Kerwin Hairston played his first two AFL seasons with the Destroyers...Force OS Markeith Cooper is the younger brother of retired Buffalo Destroyer Lamont Cooper, who was a two-time AFL "Don't Blink" Player of the Year...Buffalo FB/LB Anthony Hicks played for the Nashville Kats from 1998-2001...Destroyers Defensive Coordinator/ DB Coach Weylan Harding was a member of the Nashville Kats from 1997-98.

HEAD COACHES:

MARTY LOWE, Georgia (7-5, 2nd Year): Marty Lowe begins his second season as Head Coach of the Georgia Force. Lowe guided the Force to a second place finish in the Southern Division and a 6-8 record in the team's inaugural season in 2002. He replaced Robert Lyles, who was relieved of his duties following the Force's 1-4 last year. Under his direction, the Force finished the year winning five of their last eight games.

Prior to joining the Force, Lowe served as running back coach for the University of Texas-El Paso. Lowe's coaching career in the Arena Football League started when he joined the Nashville Kats as an offensive assistant in March 2000 after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Louisville. With the Kats, Lowe 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 Arena Bowl XIV. Lowe went on to serve as the Kats offensive coordinator and assistant coach, where his duties included creating and implementing the offensive game plan and coaching the team's wide receivers and quarterbacks.

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.

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. A native of Chattanooga, Lowe was Mr. Football in Tennessee as a senior at Red Bank High School in 1990.

RON SELESKY, Buffalo (2-1, 1st Year): Ron Selesky earned 2002 af2 Coach of the Year honors guiding the expansion Albany Conquest to a regular season mark of 13-3 and the Northeast Division championship. The Conquest also advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2002 Arena Cup playoffs. Selesky compiled an overall record of 19-13 in two seasons in the af2 during the regular season with a 1-1 playoff mark.

Selesky joined the Conquest after leading the expansion Louisville Fire to a 6-10 mark in 2001. Prior to his stint in Louisville, Selesky spent one season as the director of player personnel and assistant coach for the Carolina Cobras. He was the director of player personnel and assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Storm from 1997 to 1999. While Selesky was in Tampa, the Storm compiled a 31-11 regular-season record and earned a berth on the ArenaBowl XII in 1998.

Selesky played college football at North Central College (Division III) in Naperville, Illinois, where he was a four-year starter at left offensive tackle. Following his college career, he played in the National Football League for the Minnesota Vikings in 1987 and attended NFL camps in San Diego (1988), Miami (1990) and Detroit (1992).

MAKING HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS:

The Force are 2-0 this season when trailing at the half. Georgia was down 27-17 after two quarters in the season opener at Colorado only to climb back to win 44-40. The Force was then behind 20-17 to San Jose last week before pulling out a 51-49 win on the game's final play.

BASKING IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

Georgia is a perfect 2-0 on the season when the NBC cameras are rolling. Claiming victories against the Colorado Crush 44-40 in Week 1 and a 51-49 win versus the defending AFL World Champion San Jose SaberCats in Week 3. The Force has six possible games to be shown regionally on NBC this season.

HARDEST WORKING MAN IN GEORGIA:

Quarterback James Brown stepped in for Donnie Davis to lead the Force to a 51-49 victory against the defending AFL World Champion San Jose SaberCats last week. Brown was thrust into the starting spot only hours prior to kickoff when Davis, who suffered a left hand injury at Detroit the week before, could not play. Davis only sat out for two plays after suffering the injury on the team's first drive of the fourth quarter and returned to finish the game against the Fury. In his appearance as a back up, Brown threw two incomplete passes.

Davis practiced all week with the team only to find out shortly before the game that he would be used as the team's emergency third quarterback.

Brown had a career day as the game's leading passer and rushing finishing 23-for-37 for 219 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 17 yards on five carries. With one second remaining on the clock, Brown capped off his performance with an 11-yard touchdown strike to Darryl Hammond as time expired to capture the win.

BETTER WITH AGE:

Wide Receiver/ Linebacker Darryl Hammond seems to defy time as he plays in his 13th season in the AFL breaking the league record for career years of service. (Previous mark 12 years- Sylvester Bembery 1988-2000 and George LaFrance 1988-2000).

Hammond caught six passes for 58 yards against San Jose, three of which went for touchdowns including a game-winning catch from James Brown as time expired.

He currently ranks second in the AFL with 532 career tackles, ranks in the top 15 in AFL in career scoring with 784 points and is in the top 10 in AFL in career pass receptions with 608. Hammond has had 7 seasons of 50 or more pass receptions.

ONE-POINT WONDER:

Kicker Steve McLaughlin is a perfect 15-for-15 on the season on PAT attempts. Last season, McLaughlin earned second team All-Arena honors. He currently is seventh all time for most career one point PATs with 347.

LAST WEEK:

DULUTH, GA.- The Georgia Force (2-1) handed the Arena Football League World Champion San Jose SaberCats (1-2) its second straight loss winning 51-49 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. In front of a sold out crowd of 11,200, the Force unveiled its new Arena as the first-ever event in the new venue.

Force quarterback James Brown, who was a game time decision to replace starter Donnie Davis, found Darryl Hammond in the back of the endzone as time expired giving San Jose its second loss of the season in the final seconds. Last week, the Los Angeles Avengers defeated the SaberCats 73-72 on a touchdown and two-point conversion with one second remaining. The SaberCats had not lost back-to-back games since the 2001 season.

The first quarter ended with both teams tied at seven a piece. Early in the second quarter, Brown threw a deep pass, which looked like a sure touchdown to Tyronne Jones. As Jones was hauling in the pass defender Clevan Thomas stripped the ball and returned it 44-yards for the touchdown giving San Jose a 20-10 lead. The Force responded when Brown finally connected with Jones from 13-yards outs to cut the SaberCats lead to 20-17 at the half.

Georgia regained the lead 24-20 when Jarrick Hillery intercepted Mark Grieb on San Jose's first second half possession then Brown and Hammond teamed up for a nine-yard score. The Force built an 11-point advantage when Grieb threw his second straight pick, this time to Kevin Gaines, which the Force capitalized with a Jones four-yard run for the touchdown.

The Force kept its double-digit lead until late in the fourth quarter when San Jose scored 14-straight points to take over the game with under a minute left. Keala Keanaaina recovered a Brown fumble and returned it 16-yards for the go-ahead touchdown with 57 seconds remaining in the contest. With one second remaining on the clock, Brown was able to buy himself enough time to hit a streaking Hammond in the back of the endzone and steal back the victory.

LAST MEETING with BUFFALO:

Atlanta, GA. (July 6, 2002) – The Georgia Force (5-7) defeated the Buffalo Destroyers (6-6) 54-33 at Philips Arena on Saturday night. The victory places Georgia in a three-way tie for the Southern Division lead with two games left in the season. The game was the Force's final home game of the season. The team finished the year 3-4 at home.

Georgia quarterback Donnie Davis earned game MVP honors completing 20-33 passes for 231 and four touchdowns. He also rushed twice for 40 yards and a score. The Force's Jarrick Hillery captured the game's Ironman award. Hillery had six catches for 57 yards and two TDs, one rush for one yard and 1.5 tackles on defense recording an interception.

Both defenses came out ready, the Force recorded interceptions on Buffalo's first two drives and held the Destroyers on fourth down to regain the ball on Buffalo's third possession. Buffalo's fourth drive resulted in a field goal attempt that was blocked by and went out of the back of the endzone for a safety. Buffalo's defense registered one interception in the first 15 minutes of play, as the Force had a 16-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Georgia added seven more points after another interception by the Force defense, before Buffalo ended their scoring drought on a 34-yard touchdown from Fred McNair to Lamont Cooper. The Force found the endzone again then hauled in their fourth interception of the game resulting in a 21-yard field goal by Matt Huerkamp giving them a 33-7 advantage. The Destroyers tacked on 10 more points, but the Force took a 33-16 lead into the break.

On Georgia's first play on the second half Donnie Davis hit Jarrick Hillery, who after several cutbacks found the endzone 29-yards later and a 40-16 Force lead. The Destroyers outscored the Force 14-0 the remainder of the quarter as Georgia led 40-30 after three periods of play.

Hillery scored his second touchdown of the game on a fourth down four-yard pass from Davis to raise the Force lead to 47-30. Buffalo added a field goal to bring the score to 47-33, then recovered an on-side kick to earn the ball back with a little more then three minutes remaining. Georgia defense again held strong running down the clock, then forcing and recovering a fumble to get the ball back inside the contest's final minute. Davis snuck around the corner of the line and ran it from 36-yards out for the game's final score and the Force claimed the victory.

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Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from February 18, 2003


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