by Kahlil Najar

The San Jose SaberCats (5-3) demolished the Orlando Predators (5-2), 70-35. at the SAP Center on Saturday night. Quarterback Russ Michna was locked in and completed close to 60% of his passes and threw for 149 yards and five touchdowns. 14-of-24 passes for 149 yards and five touchdowns. Wide receiver Dominique Curry shined on both sides of the ball as he hauled in two touchdowns on offense and one strip fumble recovery for a TD on special teams. The Cats defense also played an amazing game as they sacked the Predators quarterback seven times for 31 total yards loss.

“Our defense is getting better and better every week,” said Head Coach Darren Arbet, “Our offense has had a lot of moving pieces, so our defense has to play the way it’s been playing for us to win right now.”

San Jose started the game great when they were able to get to the Predators in their end of the field and strip the ball from quarterback Jason Boltus and the Sabercats Luis Vasquez was able to pick up the ball and run it in for an 8 yard score. On the very next Orlando drive Kenny Okoro intercepted the ball and gave San Jose the ball on the Predators 20. Then immediately Russ Micha ran the ball in and quickly gave San Jose a 14-0 lead will than five minutes gone in the first.

Orlando’s third drive wasn’t any better as after three plays, Boltus fumbled the ball again and gave the ball back to the Cats at the Predators 17. San Jose was able to capitalize on the turnover when they found Curry in the end zone and made it a 21-0 lead.

Orlando, a normally explosive offense was only able to put up 35 points on the Cats. Predator receiver Khalil Paden had seven catches for 125 yards and a touchdown and their other receiver Greg Carr hauled in 11 passes for 143 yards and three touchdowns.

The Sabercats piled in more points through out the next two quarters and in the second half, the Cats defense was only able to come up with one touchdown. “We smelled blood in the water in the third quarter when they started to get their heads down, and we never let our foot off the pedal,” said Vasquez when asked about how the defense felt.

The Cats have next week off but them come back to play at the SAP Center on May 17th when they face off against the Portland Thunder.