Twisters open playoffs with momentum, home field
Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008
The Arkansas Twisters will start the Arena Football 2 playoffs against the Central Valley Coyotes at North Little Rock’s Alltel Arena on Sunday.
Arkansas is in the AF 2 playoffs for the third consecutive season and has home-field advantage for the first round for the second consecutive.
Arkansas (11-5 ) finished second in the National Conference Central Division, one game behind Tulsa. Central Valley (10-6 ) finished second in the West Division, five games behind Spokane.
After its team-record sevengame winning streak was stopped July 19 by the Bossier-Shreveport BattleWings, Arkansas concluded the regular season with a 78-26 victory over the Texas Copperheads on Saturday.
Arkansas defensive lineman Tito Hannah said it was a “perfect way to go into the playoffs.” “But now we have to concentrate on another team, another season,” Hannah said. “It’s the playoffs, and it’s win or go home. We’re trying to stay in it and go all the way to the Arena Cup.” Texas quarterback Stephen Wasil said Arkansas looked like a playoff contender.
“My teammates talked about [Arkansas’ ] offensive and defensive lines,” Wasil said. “That’s what takes teams where they’re going. People are going to get beat when it’s 1-on-1 down the field, so if they can keep their pass rush up, and keep blocking, they have a chance.” “We wanted to end the regular season with a little momentum going into the first round,” Arkansas quarterback Kyle Rowley said. “Now it’s about refocusing and using our momentum to get better this week in practice.” Arkansas offensive lineman Vinnie Olson played Saturday even though his father, Vincent Olson, died of a heart attack Friday. Vincent Olson arrived in Little Rock on Thursday from his family’s home in Pierre, S. D.
“My dad came down here to watch me play, so I thought I might as well strap it up and play for him,” Olson said.
Olson left Sunday for South Dakota to help plan his father’s funeral. He said he would return in time to prepare for Central Valley.
“We put a lot of points up, and our defense played well to prevent points [against Texas ],” Olson said. “But the good thing about it is we played well, but we know we didn’t play as well as we can. So we have a good taste in our mouth, but we know we have to go back to work this week and get ready for the first round.
“ We’re where we’ve wanted to be. We just have to stay hungry, keep our eye on the prize and go after it.” Central Valley, based in Bakersfield, Calif., is in the AF 2 playoffs for the fourth time. It advanced to the second round last season.
Clay Groefsema replaced Central Valley’s Joe Ayoob at quarterback after Ayoob guided the Coyotes to a 4-4 record through the first half of the season. Central Valley finished with six victories in eight games under Groefsema, including a 71-64 victory over the Tri-Cities Fever on Saturday to remain seeded fifth and thus No. 4 seed Arkansas’ opponent in the first round.
Groefsema completed 67. 5 percent of his passes for 42 touchdowns and an average of 232. 5 yards in his eight starts. He threw eight interceptions, but rushed for eight touchdowns and an average of 10. 9 yards a game.
Rowley ranked second in AF 2 with an average of 274. 6 passing yards a game. He passed for 89 touchdowns and eight interceptions and led AF 2 in pass efficiency.
“Any time you have Kyle Rowley on your team, you have a chance to win a championship,” Arkansas Coach Chris Siegfried said. “I don’t think we would’ve won a championship [at Spokane in 2006 ] without him. I think we were capable of winning, but our chances went up exponentially with him.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
