The 2015 season is set to kickoff this weekend for the Philadelphia Soul as they travel to the heart of the jungle to take on the Orlando Predators at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 29 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
It will be a new group of faces for the Soul this weekend since their season ending loss in Cleveland last summer, as the Soul have once again adopted a majority of new faces from a talented-defunct team.
When their rival Pittsburgh Power folded this past offseason, the Soul added seven members from the Power this offseason, including fullback Tommy Taggart, defensive back Brandon Freeman, defensive lineman Justin Lawrence, outside lineman Keith Newell, wide receiver Shaun Kauleinamoku and defensive lineman Curtis Young, along with their former head coach Derek Stingley hired on as the defensive coordinator.
Head coach Clint Dolezel and quarterback Dan Raudabaugh are returning for their fourth season together in Philadelphia, and are returning to the Amway Center for the first time since their heartbreaking loss to the Arizona Rattlers in Arena Bowl XXVI back in 2013. Philadelphia played Orlando twice last season, once in Orlando, but the Predators played their home games at CFE Arena for the 2014 season due to contract issues.
The Soul swept the Predators in their two-game series last season, taking the first game 69-56 on April 10 in Orlando before finishing off the series with a 42-35 win July 7 in Philadelphia.
It’s worth noting that the Predators’ season was ended last year in a 56-48 home loss to the Power on Aug. 3 in the opening round of the playoffs since many members of that Power team have made a new home in Philly.
Bernard Morris will be at quarterback for the Predators again this season, after spending his first season in Orlando last year on the refuse to report list for the first half of the season along with battling injuries, sharing reps with Jason Boltus.
Morris played in nine games for Orlando last year, throwing for 47 touchdowns and six interceptions, with a 64.9 completion percentage.
Gregg Carr was Orlando’s leading receiver last season scoring 36 touchdowns and averaged 79.7 yards per game.
One of the bigger additions for the Predators this offseason came this past week when Orlando signed defensive end Daniel Te’o-Nesheim, who is entering his first year in the AFL after spending time with the Philadelphia Eagles (2010) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2011-13).
Orlando is a team that has more experience playing together as a whole than Philadelphia currently does, but the Soul clearly have the more talented roster. The biggest challenge for the Soul will be flowing together as team early on and seeing if the players can mesh together well and compete for an Arena Bowl. The Soul struggled out the gate last season dropping their first three games, but finally got things rolling when they traveled to Orlando to take on these same Predators. Hopefully this matchup can get the Soul rolling again this season.
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