SAN JOSE (April 22, 2011) – A 34-point fourth quarter wasn’t enough as the Philadelphia Soul (1-5) were unable to overcome a 25-point deficit and the San Jose SaberCats (5-2) secured the 68-61 victory over the Soul in front of 8,663 fans on Friday night at the HP Pavilion.
“We didn’t help ourselves in the first half with the mental mistakes,” said Soul head coach Mike Hohensee. “But the fight and effort was there – more apparently in the second half because we were behind. We battled back and it is something that we will build on as a team.”
Philadelphia quarterback, Justin Allgood finished by connecting on 15-of-24 passes for 135 yards, two touchdowns and one interception before getting knocked out of the game with a possible concussion. Ryan Vena finished 12-of-16 passing for 217 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in relief duty.
Leading the receiving corps for the Soul was Donovan Morgan with 11 receptions for 163 yards and two touchdowns, while Syvelle Newton had six receptions for 82 yards and two touchdowns and Keith Stokes added eight catches for 81 yards and three touchdowns.
San Jose QB Mark Grieb completed 18-of-28 passes for 221 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. Nichir Flowers led SaberCats receivers with six receptions for 70 yards and two touchdowns.
Defensively, Philadelphia was led by Antonio Malone who had 4.5 total tackles, three pass break ups, while Mike Brown chipped in with 3.5 total tackles and an interception.
San Jose FB Chad Cook opened the scoring when he marched in from four yards out for a 7-0 lead. The Soul answered with an eight-play, 45-yard drive that ended with a spectacular one-handed, three-yard touchdown catch by Morgan to make the score 7-7. Then, San Jose veteran QB Mark Grieb found a wide-open Nichir Flowers for a 27-yard touchdown for a 14-7 lead after the first quarter.
Philadelphia’s Dan Ross opened the second quarter scoring with a three-yard touchdown run to narrow the score to14-13. But the SaberCats went on to outscore the Soul 17-13 in the second quarter for a 31-20 halftime lead.
The SaberCats stepped it up in the third quarter by opening the scoring when Grieb found Flowers again on a 6-yard touchdown connection for 38-20 lead. San Jose’s Jamario O’Neal scored on a 10-yard interception return that knocked Allgood out of the game and extended the lead to 45-20.
Sparked by a Mike Brown interception, Vena found Stokes on an 11-yard touchdown to end the third quarter with the 45-27 lead for San Jose.
In the fourth quarter, San Jose’s Jamario Nwokocha hauled in a 17-yard touchdown reception over the boards to push the lead to 52-27 – their largest lead of the evening. The Soul mounted a comeback with fourth quarter scoring that included: two Newton touchdowns, a Morgan 45-yard touchdown, a Vena four-yard rushing score and a Stokes 25-yard touchdown reception on the last play of the game.
The Soul will travel to play the Iowa Barnstormers next Saturday, April 30 at 8:05 p.m. ET at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, IA. The game can be seen locally on WMCN-TV.
-courtesy of the Philadelphia Soul
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