Soul remain unbeaten

By John McMullen
The Phanatic Magazine

Philadelphia, PA - Brace yourselves...We actually have a contender in town.

Jon Bon Jovi, Ron Jaworksi and Rich Lisk have done what other front office people in this city have never been able to.

They surveyed the landscape of a league, figured out what it would take to win and actually built a team to do it.

Of course, whether a Philadelphia Soul Arena League championship would count against our famous 24-year old drought is something every individual will have to answer for themselves. But, the 14,721 fans that showed up to the Wachovia Center to see the Soul demolish John Elway’s Colorado Crush, 71-47, in their home opener believe it would.

And, the 2007 Soul are ready to make a run. They have a veteran quarterback in Tony Graziani, a plethora of quick receives that can all do damage from the slot (an absolute must in the AFL) and one of the few corners in the league that can honestly be called a playmaker in Eddie Moten.

Understand Colorado is no ordinary team. Two years ago they were league champions and last season they lost to the eventual champs, the Chicago Rush. Meanwhile, the Soul had never beaten the Crush before tonight.

The key to the arena game is holding serve and the Philadelphia defense, spearheaded by Moten, “broke” the Crush time after time, especially in the second half. Philadelphia forced three interceptions and three four-and-outs during the contest.

Things didn’t look good early, however, as the Crush built double-digit leads on two occasions.

Colorado took an early 13-0 lead before Graziani ever touched the ball. Damian Harrell’s nine-yard touchdown reception was followed by a successful on-side kick and a Robert Redd 34-yard TD catch.

The Soul regained their footing from there and managed to deadlock things at 27 by intermission. They then ran away with things in the second half. After the two teams exchanged turnovers, Graziani connected on back-to-back scoring passes to J.J. McKelvey and the dynamic Charles Pauley, as the Soul took their first double-digit lead, 41-27.

The Crush had one last flurry in them and cut the advantage to 55-47 before Philadelphia shut the door with 16 straight points on a 22-yard Pauley touchdown, a 39-yard Todd France field goal and a kickoff net recovery in the end zone by Brian Mance.

"We are pretty good when our offensive line is giving Tony protection,” Pauley said. “This is big for the whole team and organization. To make it look this easy really tells you what we have here.”

Pauley caught 11 balls for 202 yards and four TDs in the game for the undefeated Soul, while Graziani was named the Offensive Player of the Game after throwing for 312 yards and eight touchdowns on 21-of-31 passing.