SaberCats Win West With 61-56 Defeat Of Crush
May 7, 2006 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
San Jose SaberCats News Release
SAN JOSE, Calif. (May 6, 2006) - San Jose quarterback Mark Grieb threw five scoring passes and the SaberCats (9-6) clinched their sixth Western Division title and first since 2003 with a 61-56 win over the defending ArenaBowl champion Colorado Crush (10-5) in an Arena Football League game on Saturday night.
Grieb completed 23-of-28 attempts for 260 yards with no interceptions in the game. He threw three touchdown passes in the second quarter, the first a 12-yarder to Brian Johnson that tied the game at 14-14 with five minutes elapsed in the frame.
It was the first career touchdown reception for Johnson, who also had a game-high 18-yards and a 1-yard scoring running for the only points in the third quarter.
San Jose scored twice in the final 37 seconds of the first half to take a 40-28 lead at intermission.
Following a Willis Marshall touchdown run that gave Colorado a 28-27 lead with 44 seconds left in the half, Charles Pauley scampered 57 yards with the ensuing kickoff for the first San Jose kick return score of the year.
On the next Colorado possession, Omarr Smith stepped in front of a John Dutton offering intended for Ahmad Hawkins and returned the interception 42-yards for a score as time expired in the half.
It was the 5th career interception return for Smith giving him the SaberCats career lead.
Dutton threw four of his six scoring passes in the fourth quarter to pull the Crush close, his last a 48-yard strike to Hawkins as time expired. The former SaberCat threw for 376 yards on 29-of-43 passing but his two interceptions were converted to touchdowns by San Jose.
Marshall had a game-high 10 catches while Damian Harrell extended his league touchdown receptions record to 55 with four scores on nine catches.
Notes: Brian Johnson had his 1st career touchdown reception...Marquis Floyd had his 2nd interception of the season...Barry Wagner had 1 rushing TD giving him 127 rushing TDs in his career...Brian Schmitz made his 500th career PAT...Charles Pauley had San Jose's 1st KOR touchdown of the season...Omarr Smith had an interception for a touchdown and now holds the team record with five...Brian Johnson scored his 12th rushing TD of the season...Mark Grieb completed the 2,100th pass of his career...James Roe passed 6,700 career receiving yards...Grieb set a team season record for pass attempts with 564...
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