Empire rally to remain perfect

After sluggish start, scored final 22 points in victory at Orlando

Co-owners Ron Tridico and Nate Starling got the best of both worlds Saturday night as their teams met in a National Arena League football game.

Starling, majority owner of the Predators, hoped for a close game, and Orlando delivered until the fourth quarter. That’s when the Empire, principally owned by Tridico, got warmed up, scoring the final 22 points in a 68-40 victory over the Predators at Amway Center in Orlando.

Tommy Grady threw four of his six touchdown passes in the second half and kicker Craig Peterson produced 14 points as the Empire (4-0) reached the halfway point of their regularseason schedule as the NAL’S only unbeaten team.

Tridico and Starling were co-owners of the Predators when they purchased a second NAL franchise, which they placed in Albany, over the summer. The Empire have been the league’s dominant team, averaging 69 points per game and outscoring their opponents by 22 per game.

Early on, it didn’t look like Albany would get close to either of those totals.

The Empire trailed by 11 points in the first half but scored touchdowns on their last eight possessions to wreck the upset bid by Orlando (1-2).

Brian Hicks threw six touchdown passes for Orlando (1-2). He was knocked out of the game briefly near the end of the third quarter on a quarterback takedown but returned to start the fourth quarter, throwing a touchdown to Dezmond Epps on the first play to cut Albany’s lead to 46-40.

Grady, who had 23 TD passes in Albany’s first three games, answered with scoring strikes to Phillip Barnett for 9 yards and Darius Prince for 15. It was Bar

nett’s second touchdown of the night and Prince’s fourth.

Nhyre Quinerly had an interception between those touchdowns to help give the Empire control.

The Empire, who will add 2019 Arena Football League Offensive Player of the Year Malachi Jones to their receiving corp next week, will stay in Florida for the week and play next Saturday night at Jacksonville.

A sloppy first half still ended with Albany in the lead, 32-27. The Empire defense stopped the Predators on fourth down with 42 seconds to go, and Grady led a 41-yard drive that took just 33 seconds. Grady capped it with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Prince.

Each team scored four touchdowns in the first half, but Albany had the advantage because Orlando missed an extra point and Empire kicker Craig Peterson twice produced a

“deuce,” the NAL reward for putting the ball through the uprights on a kickoff. Peterson had another deuce in the second half and was 8-for-8 on pointafter-touchdown kicks.

It was a rough go for much of the half for the Empire. After scoring touchdowns on 12-of-13 possessions last week in an 83-58 home victory over Carolina, the Empire came up empty on back-to-back drives.

Albany, which stopped Orlando on the Predators’ 10-yard line, couldn’t get the ball into the end zone on four downs. Hicks delivered one of his four passing TDS of the half to give Orlando a 13-9 lead. On the next drive, Josh Jenkins intercepted Grady in the end zone. It was only the second time all season Grady had been intercepted.

Orlando converted the turnover for a 20-9 lead, the Empire’s biggest deficit of the season. Grady, held without a touchdown pass for nearly 25 minutes, hit Prince from 44 yards with 5:02 to go in the half, pulling Albany to within 27-23. A second Grady-to-prince connection with nine seconds left, followed by Peterson’s second deuce, provided the halftime margin.

The Empire opened the game with an unsuccessful onside kick, and the Predators capitalized on the fourth play to take an early lead. Orlando had two attempts at the point-after — Albany was called for an illegal defense at the first — but kicker Jorge Leon banged one off each upright.