Avengers pound the Soul

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The Avengers ended their three-game, 11-day stretch with a 71-34 loss to the Philadelphia Soul on Thursday night at STAPLES Center before 13,398. Los Angeles now has nine days to shake off a two-game losing streak before playing at Grand Rapids on Sunday, March 30.

The Soul remained undefeated at 4-0 by taking advantage of fatigued Los Angeles offense that was shut out for the last 22 minutes of the game. The Avengers fell to 2-2.

Filling in for Soul starting quarterback Tony Graziani, Matt D’Orazio was 28-of-42 for 338 yards with eight touchdowns. Six of those scoring tosses were to former Avenger star wide receiver Chris Jackson, who finished with a game-high 167 yards on 10 catches and earned “Offensive Player of the Game” honors.

Avenger quarterback Sonny Cumbie was 18-of-30 for 152 yards and three touchdowns, with a interception. Veteran wide receiver Kevin Ingram caught 12 passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns for Los Angeles.

The Avengers appeared to show signs of fatigue late in the third quarter as their offense ground to a halt as it was stopped on eight straight possessions.

“It’s not ideal to play three games in 11 days,“ Avenger head coach Ed Hodgkiss said. “We did come out and play tired and flat in the second half. I don’t want to use the rough schedule as an excuse, because there have been times when we have had a short week and played well.”

Both teams scored on all of their possession in the first half. The difference being that the Soul scored last in the second quarter on a 24-yard pass from D’Orazio to rookie wide receiver Larry Brackins.

On that crucial play, Brackins caught the pass inside L.A.’s five-yard line and fought his way to the end zone with three seconds left until the intermission.

After the halftime break, Cumbie engineered a 15-play, 45-yard drive punctuated by fullback Lonnie Ford’s second one-yard touchdown run of the game, which tied the score at 34-34. That was as close as the Avengers would get.

The first of two touchdowns scored by the Soul defense came when linebacker Anthony Dunn stripped Cumbie of the football near the goal line and defensive end Gabe Nyenhuis, who was selected as the “ADT Defensive Player of the Game,” recovered it in the end zone to give Philadelphia a 48-34 lead with 3:41 to play in the third quarter.