The Soul sweep Orlando, keep playoff hopes alive

                                                                                                                              Photo from Philly.com

      

 The Soul put on a show for ESPN2’s Monday Night Arena Football with a 42-35 win over the Orlando Predators Monday, July 7 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

The win gets the Soul back to .500 (8-8) and keeps Philly in the hunt for the final wildcard seed in the American Conference playoff race, now sitting a half game and a tiebreaker behind the (8-7) Tampa bay Storm.

Dan Raudabaugh continued to lead the Soul to victory with another stellar performance, going 14-25 with 193 passing yards, four touchdowns and one interception for a 103.8 quarterback rating in the game.

Tiger Jones put up 108 yards in the game with one touchdown on seven receptions. Markee White had five receptions for 64 yards and three touchdowns. Derrick Ross had six rushing attempts, earning 18 yards and one touchdown. Ross also had two receiving receptions for 13 yards.

The Soul defense got to Orlando quarterback Jason Boltus early and often Monday night, sacking him a total of four times in the game for 24 yards. Boltus went 22-42 on the night with 308 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

Rayshaun Kizer led by example for the Soul defense Monday, breaking up six passes at crucial moments and recording 10.5 tackles.  

LaRico Stevens opened the scoring in the game, bringing the opening kickoff to the house for a Soul touchdown. The Soul defense stood strong on the next drive, sacking Boltus twice and forcing a turnover on downs at midfield. Raudabaugh found Markee White on his first drive of the game for a 19 yard touchdown to extend Philly’s lead to 14-0.

In the second quarter, with the Soul leading 21-14, a Raudabaugh pass was intercepted by former Soul cornerback Eddie Moten, a member of the Arena Bowl XXII team, the Soul’s first turnover of the night. However, the Predators were unable to capitalize on the turnover and the Soul took over deep in their own territory.

    

        With a little over a minute remaining in the half, Jason Boltus once again cut the Soul lead to one score, this time rushing for a touchdown himself. Momentum seemed to change after the touchdown when Orlando attempted and recovered an onside kick, the demon that has haunted this Soul team all season long. The Predators ran down the clock, burning up the Soul’s timeouts and scoring a one yard Gregg Carr touchdown in the final seconds of the half to tie the game at 28 apiece.

       

     Whatever momentum Orlando had heading into the second half was stolen away by a Brandon Perkins interception off Boltus at the Philadelphia two yard line on the first drive of the half. Both teams played sloppy football throughout the third quarter and neither team was able to put anything up on the board until Philadelphia broke the scoreless drought with a 20 yard Tiger Jones touchdown with 11 seconds remaining in the quarter.

      

      Philadelphia was able to continue to hold Orlando scoreless for the majority of the second half, and Orlando’s only score was a Greg Carr touchdown with 1:22 remaining in the game, cutting the Soul lead to 42-35. Fans were on the edge of their seats during the highly-anticipated onside kick, but the Soul special teams finally caught a break as Orlando’s kicker Mark Lewis kicked the ball past both teams and out of bounds at the 21 yard line. Philly was finally able to run the clock down and secure a win to get them one step closer to the American Conference playoffs.

   

         There were deals of concern for this team’s offense throughout the entire third quarter and times in the fourth, and the special teams went another game without showing us they can recover an onside kick. We can all breathe a sigh of relief the next couple of days that Orlando kicked the ball out of bounds the last time they touched it Monday, but coach Dolezel will have a lot to work on with his team during their bye week over the next couple of days.

We will take a closer look at the playoff picture later in the week, but the short rundown is Monday’s win puts the Soul at 8-8, right behind the Tampa Bay Storm who sit at 8-7 and will play three tough opponents the rest of the month. Philadelphia does not have an easy path by any means, but the Soul’s schedule has a slight advantage over Tampa’s. Philadelphia would still need to win one more game than Tampa due to tie breaking procedures if they were going to pass the Storm for the final playoff spot. There’s still a chance both Philadelphia and Tampa Bay can make the playoffs, if the Storm beat out the Orlando Predators (8-7) for the East Division title and the Soul have the same or better record as Orlando’s.

    

        First things first, the Soul will need to take care of their own business healing up and correcting their mistakes throughout the bye week and returning in two weeks to take on the San Jose SaberCats at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 20 for the regular season home finale. After the last time these two teams met up in week two on Sunday, March 23 (a 70-33 San Jose win), I think the Soul will be feeling like they owe the ’Cats one.