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AFL I Arena Football League (1987-2008)

The Deuce Scoop

May 7, 2003 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I) News Release


MATINEE SPECIAL: The Albany Conquest and Cincinnati Swarm will play at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. This is the first of three games that the Swarm will play on Saturday afternoons. The other two are versus Hawaii on May 24 and against Green Bay on June 24.

AND THE AWARDS GO TO: Week 6 award winners are: Richmond's DAMON THOMPSON (Offensive Player of the Week), Tulsa's GREG TAYLOR (Ironman of the Week) and Charleston's DEMONT SMITH (ADT Defensive Player).

HOME SWEET HOME: For the first time all season, visiting teams won more games than home teams. In Week 6, home teams went 6-7 for a .462 winning percentage. So far this season, home teams are 43-21 for a .679 win percentage. In 2002 home teams went 157-113 throughout the regular season for a .585 win percentage. The table below shows the best all-time home winning percentages among current af2 teams.

Regular Season at Home Record Pct. Streak
Quad City 24-3 .888 Won 2
Tulsa 23-3 .885 Won20*
Norfolk 21-5 .808 Lost 1
Tennessee Valley 21-5 .808 Won 2
Cape Fear 8-2 .800 Won 2
Macon 16-4 .800 Won 4
Albany 7-2 .777 Won 3
Wichita 14-5 .737 Won 3
Birmingham 19-7 .730 Won 2
Richmond 19-7 .730 Won 1

*Tulsa's 39-37 win over Memphis in Week 4 broke the af2 record for longest regular season home win streak (20 games). The longest overall home win streak (regular season and playoffs) is 25 held by the Quad City Steamwheelers, which spanned from 2000-2002. Tulsa lost at home in the playoffs last season, meaning its current overall streak is at two games.

POTEETE GOING FOR 1000: Bossier City QB SHERARD POTEETE rushed for 23 yards and two touchdowns in the 33-21 loss to Tennessee Valley last week. For his career, Poteete is the af2's all-time leader in rushing attempts (248), yards gained (833) and touchdowns (58). Poteete can become the af2's first 1,000-yard rusher if he gets 167 more yards.

Game Rushing Yards Career Total Yards to 1,000
WK2 vs. Peoria 74 755 245
WK3 at Birmingham 15 770 230
WK4 vs. Cape Fear 19 789 211
WK5 at Arkansas 21 810 190
WK6 vs. Ten. Valley 23 833 167

THE BIG '5-0': In the high-scoring sport of Arena Football, reaching the 50-point mark typically serves as a good indicator of team success. In 2002, teams went 162-40 (80 percent) when they scored 50 or more points in a game. Whereas, they went 125-247 (34 percent) when they didn't get 50 points. In Week 6, 12 teams broke the 50-point barrier, going 8-4 in those games. Teams under 50 points went 5-9 in Week 5. For the season, teams that score better than 50 are 33-10, while teams under 50 have gone 31-54. Below is a breakdown:

2003 W-L Pct. All-time W-L Pct.
0-19 0-4 .000 0-19 2-72 .027
20-29 1-16 .059 20-29 15-157 .087
30-39 14-19 .424 30-39 91-199 .314
40-49 16-15 .516 40-49 189-178 .515
50-59 24-9 .727 50-59 191-78 .710
60-69 8-1 .889 60-69 143-21 .872
70-79 1-0 1.000 70-79 54-2 .964
80+ 0-0 .000 80+ 23-0 1.000

THE CHASE FOR 500 POINTS: Last weekend Arkansas' LENNIE JOHNSON and Tulsa's MITCH ALLNER joined former Birmingham Steeldog WAYNE THOMAS (606 career points) as the only players in af2 history to reach 500 points scored for their career. Johnson did it with a 15-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter against Macon, and Allner eclipsed 500 with 30-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter at Memphis. Below is a breakdown of the other active players looking to join the 500 club.

Name/Team Points Pts. Needed
Wayne Thomas (BIR, 2000-02) 606 -
Mitch Allner, Tulsa 522 -
Lennie Johnson, Arkansas 502 -

James Dickerson, Columbus 482 18
Xavier Patterson, Ten. Valley 456 44
Kelly Fields, Ten. Valley 438 62
Brandon Burnside, Florida 424 76
Mesiah Porter, Columbus 416 84

A STRONG LEG TO STAND ON: Since returning to the Steamwheelers this season, quarterback TONY ZIMMERMAN has showed no ill-effects of the broken leg he suffered last year. In last week's 55-52 win over Peoria, Zimmerman completed 22-of-30 passes for 317 yards and seven touchdowns, and he also rushed for a score. For the season Zimmerman is leading the league in passing yards (1,391) and is tied for first in passing touchdowns (27), averaging 5.4 a game, and he is on a pace to challenge the all-time records for passing yards and touchdowns. JON NIELSON threw for 4,417 yards during the 2000 season and MATT SAUK tossed 86 touchdowns during the 2001 season. Zimmerman is on pace for 4,451 passing yards and 86 touchdowns.

PARITY RULES: In Week 6, 8-of-13 games were decided by seven points or less. For the season, 28 of the 64 (43.8%) games played have been decided by seven or fewer points, which equates to nearly a 12 percent increase from last season's average and an 15% increase from the all-time average. In addition, only one team remains undefeated, compared to four at this point last season. There is also only one team still winless in 2003, compared to four through Week 6 of the 2002 season.

SO LONG ARYVIA: The Birmingham Steeldogs announced this week, that they are placing offensive specialist ARYVIA HOLMES on exempt status so he can sign with the CFL's Montreal Alouettes. Holmes, a former Samford standout, appeared in five games this season with the Steeldogs, recording five straight 100-yard games. He led the af2 in receptions (46), and was second in yards (587) and touchdowns (13). Holmes becomes the fifth Steeldogs player to move up to a higher level, joining Brian Holmes (Atlanta Falcons and NFL Europe), Jerry Turner (Las Vegas Gladiators), Ernest Ross and Herman Bell (Detroit Fury). Holmes was on a pace to challenge the all-time af2 scoring record. Below is an update of the current af2 scoring leaders. The all-time record for scoring in a single season is 284 points by SHON KING during the 2000 season.

Name - Team GP Points Projected Total
Michael Dritlein - WIC 5 92 294
Kevin Prentiss - MEM 5 90 288
Jeff Hewitt - QUA 5 84 268
Cainon Lamb - FLO 5 80 256

IN THE CLUTCH: Birmingham kicker RHETT GALLEGO took over the league lead in field goal percentage last week in dramatic fashion. Gallego connected on a 47-yarder at the buzzer to send the Steeldogs and Firecats to overtime where he split the uprights again, from 35-yards away, to win the game. Gallego has hit 7-of-13 field goals this season for a 53.8 percentage.

WHAT'S HE GOING TO DO THIS WEEK? Wichita Stealth offensive specialist MICHAEL DRITLEIN, who caught 34 passes for 526 yards and 14 touchdowns through the first four games of the season, didn't catch a single pass against the Hawaiian Islanders last Saturday. Instead he delivered a last-second win to the delight of 6,549 screaming fans at the Kansas Coliseum. With the game tied at 29 and 11 seconds to play, Hawaii set up for a 43-yard game-winning field goal try. The kick went wide left and Dritlein retrieved it off the net, turned back around, cut to his left and exploded down the sidelines for a 57-yard game-winning touchdown.

WHAT'S WITH THE RUSH? Arena Football is known as a pass-happy game, but some teams are finding out that it pays to run too. The combined record of the seven teams at the top of the rushing touchdown list is 23-11, compared to 12-21 among the bottom seven teams in rushing touchdowns. Below is a break down of the top seven.

Team Rushing TDs Win-Loss
Bossier City 16 2-3
Hawaii 13 3-2
Macon 13 4-1
Cape Fear 10 3-1
Quad City 9 3-2
Tulsa 9 4-1
Wichita 9 4-1

SKID STOPS AT 10: The Charleston Swamp Foxes' not only picked up their first road win of 2003 last week, it also marked the end of a 10-game losing skid away from the North Charleston Coliseum. Prior to knocking off the Wardogs 56-40, the last Foxes' road win was the 2002 season opener at Greensboro (April 12, 2002). It also marked the first time the Foxes' had gotten the best of head coach John Fourcade, who led Florida to the 2002 ArenaCup game last season.

PRENTISS TERRORIZES TULSA: Even though the Talons swept the Xplorers 2-0 in the season series, they could not seem to find a way to contain KEVIN PRENTISS. The Memphis offensive specialist totaled 22 catches for 391 yards and nine touchdowns in the two games versus the Talons this season, including this past Saturday when he had nine catches for 192 yards and six TDs in the 61-57 loss.

MR. (ALMOST) PERFECT: Pioneers kicker JIMMY KIBBLE continues to stay at or near the top of every major af2 kicking category. His 7 for 7 extra point performance against Albany improves his current streak to sixteen consecutive PATs without a miss. He is currently 21 for 22 for the year, with the only blemishes being one block against Quad City.

UNDEFEATED VIPERS: The Tennessee Valley Vipers are af2's only undefeated team (4-0) and in order to stay that way, they'll have win on the road, where af2 teams have gone 21-43 this season. The Vipers, however, have only lost one road game in the past three seasons compiling a 16-1 record over that time. Quarterback Matt Sauk is a perfect 10-0 on the road as the Vipers quarterback, 8-0 in 2001 and 2-0 this season.

RECORD-SETTING NIGHT: Saturday night at Wilkes-Barre the Albany Conquest set a new scoring record. The 68 points scored was the most ever in the team's short two-year history. Albany managed to score on every possession, with the exception of their second drive of the first quarter when Ryan Vena threw just his 2nd interception of the season in the Wilkes-Barre endzone. Despite the interception, Vena completed 87.5% of his passes (28-of-32) for 285 yards and eight touchdowns. He also rushed for another score, as the Conquest took control of first place in the Northeast Division.

SMITH'S PICKS: Charleston defensive specialist DEMONT SMITH tallied three interceptions in the Swamp Foxes' win over Columbus last Saturday, earning ADT Defensive Player of the Week honors in the process. It is the second time this season that Smith has recorded three interceptions in a single game, and his seven picks for the season puts him on a pace to eclipse the single season mark of 15 set last year by KELLY SNELL. Through Week 6, Smith is on a pace for a 22-interception season.

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Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from May 7, 2003


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