ArenaBowl XIV - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

ArenaBowl XIV is widely hailed as one of the most exciting games in ArenaBowl

ArenaBowl

The ArenaBowl is the Arena Football League's championship game. From 1987 to 2004, the ArenaBowl was hosted by either the team with the better regular-season record or the higher seeding in the playoffs. From ArenaBowl XIX in 2005 until ArenaBowl XXII in 2008, the game was played at a neutral site...

history, ranking alongside classics such as ArenaBowl XVIII

ArenaBowl XVIII

ArenaBowl XVIII saw the San Jose SaberCats and Arizona Rattlers competing for the 2004 Arena Football League championship. Until 2010, this game marked the last time the ArenaBowl was held at the home arena of the higher-seeded team, rather than a neutral site, and 17,391 fans packed the sold-out...

and ArenaBowl XIX

ArenaBowl XIX

ArenaBowl XIX was the 2005 championship game of the Arena Football League , and was played at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first-ever neutral-site title game in AFL history drew 10,822 fans to see the Colorado Crush defeat the Georgia Force 51–48 to claim the Foster ArenaBowl...

. Featuring two teams from the Arena Football League's Southern Division, the game went as a Southern Division game might be expected to: a low-scoring, largely defensive struggle. In the end, however, Orlando Predator

Orlando Predators

The Orlando Predators are an Arena Football League team based in Orlando, Florida that was founded in 1991. Their playoff streak is currently 19 seasons in a row, as of the season, becoming the ArenaBowl champions in 1998 and 2000...

kicker David Cool

David Cool

David Cool is a former Arena Football League player, having kicked for the Orlando Predators from 1998-2002 before finishing his career with the Chicago Rush and Tampa Bay Storm in 2003. He went to Georgia Southern University....

converted a 19-yard field goal

Field goal (football)

A field goal in American football and Canadian football is a goal that may be scored during general play . Field goals may be scored by a placekick or the now practically extinct drop kick.The drop kick fell out of favor in 1934 when the shape of the ball was changed...

as time expired to give the Predators

Orlando Predators

a 41-38 victory over the Nashville Kats

Nashville Kats

The Nashville Kats were an Arena Football League team, located in Nashville, Tennessee. They were last coached by Pat Sperduto, who coached the team's original incarnation to two ArenaBowl appearances prior to the original franchise's move to Atlanta in 2002...

and their second ArenaBowl

ArenaBowl

title in three years.

Game summary

The Orlando Predators

Orlando Predators

got out to a fast start in ArenaBowl XIV, opening the game with a safety and following with a pair of touchdowns to take a 15-0 lead. Though Nashville

Nashville Kats

quarterback Andy Kelly

Andy Kelly

Andy Kelly is a former American football quarterback in the Arena Football League. He played in the AFL for fifteen seasons. He also played for two seasons for the Rhein Fire of the former World League of American Football....

would soon connect with Jeff Russell

Jeff Russell

Jeffrey Lee Russell is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played 14 years from 1983 to 1996. Russell played for the Cincinnati Reds of the National League and the Texas Rangers, Oakland A's, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, all of the American League...

to pull within 15-7, Predators

Orlando Predators

quarterback Connell Maynor answered with two more touchdown passes of his own, putting Orlando

Orlando Predators

ahead 29-7 with 10 minutes to play in the first half. The score remained that way for nearly eight minutes until Nashville

Nashville Kats

's William Gaines

William Gaines

William Maxwell Gaines , better known as Bill Gaines, was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically important line of mature-audience comics...

recorded a safety, seemingly awakening the Kats

Nashville Kats

and beginning a furious comeback.

Kelly

Andy Kelly

threw for two touchdowns in the final minute of the first half, pulling the Kats

Nashville Kats

within six at halftime, and took a 30-29 lead by opening the second half with a touchdown pass to lineman James Baron

James Baron

James Baron is an arena football defensive lineman who is currently a free agent in the Arena Football League. He was the Arena Football League Players Association's president as well....

. A field goal

Field goal (football)

by Orlando

Orlando Predators

's David Cool

David Cool

was followed by a touchdown pass from Maynor to Bret Cooper (though, critically, Cool

David Cool

missed the extra point

Extra Point

Extra Point is a twice-daily, two-minute segment on ESPN Radio that covers generic sports-related topical news and opinion. The AM edition airs Monday through Saturday at various times between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. ET, and the PM edition airs Monday through Friday between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET...

), giving the Predators

Orlando Predators

a 38-30 advantage early in the fourth quarter. Nashville

Nashville Kats

's momentum was further slowed by the loss of Kelly

Andy Kelly

, who left with a knee injury and was replaced by rookie backup James Brown. Brown threw an interception on his first possession but, after Cool

David Cool

missed a 22-yard field goal

Field goal (football)

, quickly atoned for the mistake by finding Darryl Hammond

Darryl Hammond

Darryl Hammond is a retired arena football Wide receiver / Defensive back in the Arena Football League....

for a 45-yard score, and connected with Cory Fleming

Cory Fleming

Cory Lamont Fleming is a former professional American football wide receiver in the National Football League. He played two seasons for the Dallas Cowboys ....

for the two-point conversion

Two-point conversion

In American and Canadian football, a two-point conversion is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point convert immediately after it scores a touchdown...

, tying the game at 38 with 6:26 to play. Defense again took over as the game went scoreless until the Predators

Orlando Predators

drove down the field to set up a potentially game-winning 19-yard field goal

Field goal (football)

by Cool

David Cool

as time expired. Cool

David Cool

had struggled all game, having missed two extra points and three field goals, but was able to convert this one, giving Orlando

Orlando Predators

the 41-38 win.

Scoring summary

1st Quarter

ORL - Safety
ORL - Dell 16 pass from Maynor (Cool kick)
ORL - Douglass 3 run (Cool kick failed)
NASH - Russell 33 pass from Kelly (McLaughlin kick)

2nd Quarter

ORL - Hamilton 18 pass from Maynor (Cool kick)
ORL - Douglass 5 pass from Maynor (Cool kick)
NASH - Safety
NASH - Fleming 1 pass from Kelly (McLaughlin kick)
NASH - Hammond 5 pass from Kelly (McLaughlin kick)

3rd Quarter

NASH - Baron 28 pass from Kelly (McLaughlin kick)
ORL - FG Cool 38

4th Quarter

ORL - Cooper 15 pass from Maynor (Cool kick failed)
NASH - Hammond 45 pass from Brown (Fleming pass from Brown)
ORL - FG Cool 19

Trivia

On the Arena Football League's 20 Greatest Highlights Countdown (shown on arenafootball.com during the AFL's 20th season), this game is tied at #17.http://www.arenafootball.com/mediaPlayer/video.dbml?DB_MENU_ID=&SPSID=38064&SPID=3172&DB_OEM_ID=3500&CLIP_ID=26914&CLIP_FILE_ID=30438&CONTENT_TYPE=ONDEMAND

External links

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