Gray, Sabercats Feast on Outlaws

SAN JOSE, CA–

They call Reggie Gray “Big Time” for a reason, and he wasted no time proving that in Sabercats’ 61-28 victory over the Las Vegas Outlaws, scoring a 28-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. The touchdown was just the first of his 3 scores, carrying San Jose’s roaring third-ranked offense. Head coach and owner Darren Arbet praised his team’s focus in practice the previous week, mentioning that their hard work “carried over into the game.”

Las Vegas quickly answered with a big play of their own, a 38-yard strike to Clinto Solomon from quarterback J.J. Raterink, setting up his own one yard quarterback sneak touchdown to tie the game. But Gray and the Sabercats responded in a big way, outscoring the Outlaws 35-7 in the rest of the half, taking control on both sides of the ball. Gray adding two more touchdowns, making that three total in the first quarter alone. Gray would finish with 175 all-purpose yards, but didn’t score any more touchdowns, sitting for all of the second half with an injury. Arbet said that Gray “was tough to cover, because when he gets the ball in his hands, he can go the distance any time.” Go the distance he did, and then some.

The momentum swung decisively in San Jose’s favor with the score at 14-7 with 10:18 to go in the second, when Eric Crocker forced return man Gerald Young to fumble on the runback after Gray’s second touchdown. David Hyland recovered the fumble for San Jose, setting up Odie Armstrong’s one yard touchdown scamper. The Sabercats’ defense was utterly dominant by AFL standards, forcing two fumbles and holding Las Vegas to 305 yards.

The Outlaws might have outgained the Sabercats 185-175 in the first half, but that was largely due to the disparity in kick return yards, shortening the field for San Jose. Gray had 83 return yards on just three runbacks, keying the Sabercats’ offense.

The Sabercats’ big stop on fourth down with 3:51 to go in the second put the game in the refrigerator. Down 35-14, the Outlaws had driven all the way to San Jose’s six yard-line, but big linebacker Francis Maka stuffed Raternick’s run short on 4th and 2. The Sabercats quickly scored again, on a deep fade to receiver Darius Reynolds, his second score of the game, giving San Jose a commanding 42-14 halftime lead. The formidable duo of Reynolds and Gray combined to total 230 all-purpose yards and 5 scores, propelling San Jose to the victory.

With all of Gray’s success, it might be easy to forget that someone was throwing him the ball. Sabercats’ quarterback Nathan Stanley had a very efficient game under center, completing 18 of his 20 attempts and throwing seven, count ’em seven touchdowns. Maka praised Stanley, who has been in the throws of a quarterback controversy, saying that “he’s not a backup. We rode him throughout the playoffs, and he’s our guy.” With Eric Meyer out, Stanley had to be their guy, as he was the only quarterback on the active roster. Receiver Diondre Borel played some quarterback in college, and would have been available in an emergency.

The barrage of Gray touchdowns stopped in the second half, but the Sabercats’ dominance did not. Defensive end Rodney Fritz added a 32-yard touchdown trod after fellow end Donte Paige-Moss sacked Raternick on fourth down and forced a fumble. The score would end the third quarter, and gave San Jose a 55-21 lead heading into the final period. The big 270 pound lineman’s explained his mentality on the play: “Pick it up and don’t get caught. As long as I don’t, I’ll be alright.” Simple, but true.