SaberCats Advance With 62-48 Win Over Arizona
Published on May 27, 2006 under Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
San Jose SaberCats News Release
SAN JOSE, Calif. (May 27, 2006) - Quarterback Mark Grieb threw eight touchdown passes, including six to Ben Nelson, and the San Jose SaberCats outdueled the Arizona Rattlers, 62-48, in an Arena Football League American Conference semifinal playoff game on Saturday afternoon.
San Jose (11-6) advances to the Conference Championship game against the winner of Sunday's Chicago/Colorado game.
Nelson, the 2006 AFL Rookie of the Year, set San Jose playoff records with 12 receptions, 202 yards and six touchdowns. His scoring total also ties an AFL playoff game record while his yardage total ranks as the third-best.
After Arizona took a 20-7 lead on a 37-yard interception return for a score by Jeremiah Pope, Nelson scored the next three touchdowns on catches of 21, 11 and 30 yards.
Barry Wagner ended San Jose's 28-0 run with a 15-yard scoring pass giving the SaberCats a 35-20 lead with less than a minute left in the first half.
Sherdrick Bonner, who threw for 338 yards and six scores on 23-of-42 passing, teamed with Randy Gatewood on a 6-yard scoring pass to close the gap to 35-27 at halftime.
Nelson closed out the third quarter scoring on a 38-yard toss from Grieb and caught a 5-yard strike just five seconds into the fourth giving San Jose its largest lead of the game at 62-41.
Gatewood caught his third touchdown pass of the game with 10:11 left to close out the scoring.
Grieb completed 24-of-34 for 320 yards and also ran for a score.
San Jose's defense, which had been averaging nearly five stops a game in its season-ending seven-game winning streak, totaled five stops against the Rattlers and defeated their division rivals for the third time this season.
NOTES: The SaberCats extended their overall win streak to 8 games...Omarr Smith became San Jose's career playoff interceptions leader with 3...San Jose won its 10th playoff game becoming the fifth team to post double-digit postseason victories...San Jose now holds a 15-14 all-time series lead over the Rattlers, the first time the SaberCats have held the advantage in the series...San Jose also won three games in a season from Arizona in 2001...Ben Nelson's two 200-yard receiving games of the year have come against the Rattlers...The SaberCats are 5-0 when scoring 60 or more points in a playoff game...San Jose has now won four straight home playoff games.
Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from May 27, 2006
- One Step Closer - Dallas Desperados
- Force season ends, 62-27 - Georgia Force
- SaberCats Advance With 62-48 Win Over Arizona - San Jose SaberCats
- San Jose's Nelson ties AFL postseason record - AFL I
- San Jose, Dallas advance to AFL conference championship games - AFL I
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.
