Sports

Nothing ordinary about this victory

Paul Dehner Jr.

In the business of professional sports, a mantra exists among coaches: Never get too high — and never get too low.

The mantra lives in clichés about playing one game at a time, striving to be better every week and how each victory counts the same in the win column.

Yet, following the South Georgia Wildcats’ 57-55, last-second victory at the previously undefeated Spokane Shock on Saturday, no coachspeak, no cliché and no bit of common sense can subdue the residing fact: This was no ordinary win.

There was nothing ordinary about the 10,660 fans which deafened Spokane Arena every second the Wildcats touched the ball offensively.

No tougher atmosphere exists on this level of arena football to enter and win a game.

“It was electric,” Wildcats coach Derek Stingley said. “You could barely even talk with somebody standing right next to you.”

There was nothing ordinary about Shock coach and offensive guru Adam Shackelford, who was 11-0 on the season and hadn’t lost a home game in more than a year, throwing a barrage of new wrinkles at Wildcats defensive guru Stingley in a 66-yard game of full-contact chess.

“He had a lot of different schemes that I haven’t seen,” Stingley said. “He was real prepared. He’s one of the best offensive coordinators I have faced since I have been coaching.”

There was nothing ordinary about this game for Andrico Hines and Antwone Savage, both of whom played for the Spokane Shock last season.

Savage won a title with them in 2006, and he’s still considered a face of the franchise.

Hines played with a chip on of his shoulder in front of a crowd that clamored for his backup much of the second half of last season, reaching a thundering peak during a stunning first-round loss to the Louisville Fire.

He played remembering an offseason where he sat waiting for a call to return to the Shock — one that never came.

The first half he played like the ball of energy he was, sailing pass after pass out of the reach of his targets, twice throwing interceptions to the delight of Shock faithful.

But in the second half, he settled in and went 9-of-11 for 109 yards, making almost every correct decision as the tense final moments took shape.

There has been nothing ordinary all year about P.J. Berry. That trend continued Saturday as the all-everything receiver/returner took back his league-leading sixth kickoff for a touchdown late in the third quarter.

Even when he wasn’t running kicks into Spokane territory as he did with the first two of the game, he made life easier as the Shock started kicking short of Berry. The Wildcats’ average drive start after a kickoff was only two yards shy of midfield.

There was nothing ordinary about a 9-play drive during the final 4:33 of regulation in which the Wildcats converted a third-and-17 with a 28-yard pass from Hines to Berry, then successfully ran the clock down with two short passes and a QB sneak.

The Wildcats’ strategy shifted midway through the drive. It began with Stingley instructing offensive coordinator Charlie Davidson to score as soon as possible to put the game in the defense’s hands. It changed, ironically, after Buchie Ibeh’s offensive pass interference penalty on an apparent touchdown with a minute left.

“It works to our benefit Buchie got offensive pass interference or their offense could have taken the field,” Stingley said. “For us to be in control, that’s what we really needed. We said for you to win the game, now you have to block a field goal.”

There was certainly nothing ordinary about Scott Hode’s 20-yard kick attempt to win it. Only two quarters earlier, Hode missed an extra point which had his team chasing Spokane on the scoreboard all night. The Wildcats didn’t convert on another PAT after a bad snap from Nathan Finlay.

And lining up with the upset of the season hanging in the balance, the Wildcats would find out later Finlay grabbed the ball while suffering from a concussion.

The snap slid in low, but forgotten backup quarterback Cecil Lester scooped it of the ground, placed the hold and Hode made up for his earlier mistake in a big way, splitting the uprights.

“This was the best and biggest win in franchise history,” majority owner John Hunt said in a text message to me minutes after the ball went into the net.

Nothing was ordinary about the celebration of a team that has claimed all season to be among the league’s elite on paper, but until recently showed little of it on the field. They jumped around as the top-ranked team in the league watched in disbelief.

“Everybody was stunned,” Stingley said. “In the stands, on the field — they didn’t even change the score until after we were celebrating. We were jumping up and down like we had won the championship.”

As any good coach would, Stingley congratulated his team after the game, but reminded them they, in fact, hadn’t won the championship. They’d just won another game.

While Stingley wishes the playoffs began three weeks ago, they start in four games. But if they started today, Albany would hold the first home arena football playoff game in the city’s history.

Thanks to Saturday night’s victory and with South Georgia’s next three opponents holding a combined 9-27 record, the Wildcats appear on the verge of blazing into the postseason as one of a small handful of teams proven to be legitimate championship contenders.

On the field, they play with a confidence knowing there will be no more difficult scenario to overcome than the one the Wildcats did in traveling across country to shock the Shock.

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