Soul Enter Playoffs on High Note
June 21, 2007 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Philadelphia Soul News Release
PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia Soul quarterback Tony Graziani led his team to a come-from-behind victory against the Orlando Predators on Thursday night at the Wachovia Center in front of a sell out crowd of 17,643, 63-49. The victory enabled the Soul another chance at hosting a home playoff game. If the Tampa Bay Storm defeat the Austin Wranglers on Saturday night, the Soul will return to Philadelphia to play the Predators again next week.
The Soul began the game on the wrong foot after they turned the ball over on downs during their first possession. They followed it up exchanging interceptions between Graziani and Orlando quarterback Shane Stafford. Graziani had his first of two picks returned for a score by Chaz Murphy from 14 yards. Orlando's second interception against the Soul led them into the end zone, but this time saw Stafford find T.T. Tolliver put the Predators a head 14-0. Philadelphia finally got on the board when J.J. McKelvey caught a Graziani pass down the field from 34 yards. At the end of the first quarter, the Predators held a 21-14 lead.
After going down by 14 again at the beginning of the second quarter, the Soul outscored the Predators 21-7 to close out the half tied up at 35-35.
The second half started with Orlando continuing their scoring with Stafford connecting with Tolliver for the third time. The score gave him his fourth touchdown of the game after returning a kick 56 yards in the first quarter. Following the Predators score, Philadelphia scored 14 consecutive points to take their first lead of the game at 49-42. They extended that lead to 13 after Graziani hit McKelvey for the third time for a score, yet Todd France had his extra-point attempt blocked.
Orlando marched down the field to stop their scoring drought to get back with in six at 55-49, but Graziani kept the Soul offense moving. He led his team down the field to increase the Philadelphia lead to 63-55.
The Soul defense held the Predators from trying to make a comeback and held Orlando to 14 points in the second half.
Graziani finished the night completing 25-of-42 for 262 yards with six touchdowns despite two interceptions. After the first quarter, he was 19-of-30 for 171 yards with five scores and no picks. He also rushed for two scores.
Stafford went 29-of-46 for 301 yards with five touchdowns and one interception. The Soul defense also sacked him three times and was forced into bad decisions all night by the ADT Defensive Player of the Game Gabe Nyenhuis.
Fun! Family! Football! The Soul enter the Wild Card Round of the playoffs next week and will wait to see what happens in the Tampa Bay Storm and Austin Wranglers match-up on Saturday night to see where they will play. If the Storm win, tickets for next week's game will go on sale on Sunday, June 23 at 10:00 a.m. by calling 215-636-0421 and speaking to a Soul ticket representative. The Soul are entering their fourth season in the AFL and in their three seasons they have sold out 93% of the venue while drawing a League best 387,491 fans combined.
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