Soul closing in on Arena Bowl home field, magic number down to 3 with win over Tampa

Seeing each team in the league at least twice now, it’s clear the Philadelphia Soul are on a different level than the four teams under them in the standings.

Philadelphia (9-0) earned a crucial 62-41 win over Tampa (7-2) Saturday night in convincing fashion, taking a matchup between the league’s top two teams while also winning the regular season series over the Storm.

Though the teams will meet again in the season finale on August 5 in Philadelphia, the Soul have clinched the tiebreaker over the Storm, and with a two game cushion under their belts for a 2.5 game lead with just six games left in the season, it’s shaping up to look like the current undefeated Soul will probably have home field advantage all through the Arena Bowl.

Yes, now that the Soul have ran the table through ⅔ of the season, it’s okay for us to start talking about August and a potential championship game on the Chickies and Petes field at the Wells Fargo Center.

With the Soul clicking on both sides of the ball, it’s hard to see how a team will top the Soul, on their home field no less, if the team can continue playing on the level they have the past 12 months.

The offense shined Saturday, with Darius Reynolds hauling in five touchdowns, while fullback Mykel Benson plowing through the Storm defensive line to add four touchdowns.

Dan Raudabaugh shined once again, going 15 for 21 in passing with 209 yards and five touchdown throws.

The offensive squad was insync for one of their best performances of the season, against the next best team in the league.

The defense not only produced four stops in perfect timing, but Beau Bell fumble recovery and a James Romain interception rattled Randy Hippeard all night long, halting a Storm offense that couldn’t seem to find an answer for the Soul defense.

The win silenced any critics of the Soul, but more importantly put Philly’s magic number to clinch the postseason No. 1 overall seed to just THREE GAMES.

Any three game combination of a Philadelphia win or a Tampa Bay loss will give the Soul homenfield.

Philly’s next chance to inch closer will come Saturday with a trip to Cleveland as the Soul will look to sweep the four game series with the Gladiators.