Gladiators open vs. defending CIF champs
The Duke City Gladiators are scheduled to open their Champions Indoor Football regular season tonight with a game in Frisco, Texas, against last year’s league champ, the Texas Revolution.
The Gladiators are opening their 12-game season on the road for the fourth straight year.
“They’re like an all-star team,” Gladiators coach Dominic Bramante said of the Revolution in a phone interview. “They don’t have their quarterback from last year (Chris Dixon, league-leading 67 TD throws), but just about everyone else is back. They get the pick of the talent in the Dallas area.”
Bramante said it would be nice if the Gladiators could open with a victory instead of working from behind with an 0-1 record like the past three years.
“We’ve been able to overcome slow starts before, but where it really hurts is with regard to us getting a home playoff game,” said Bramante, whose team reached the postseason last year with a 7-5 record but lost on the road in the first round 70-41 in Amarillo against the Venom. In that game, Gladiators QB Donovan Porterie, an ex-Lobo, suffered a hand injury. He was last year’s league MVP. He is with the CIF’s Kansas City Phantoms this season.
Taking over at QB for Duke City will be Caleb Holbrook, who threw for 43 TDs with 13 interceptions with the CIF’s Bloomington (Ill.) Edge last season.
Last week, the Gladiators earned a 45-6 exhibition victory over the Fort Worth City Gunslingers at Tingley Coliseum. The Revolution, meanwhile, was idle, but a week earlier lost its season opener at the Dallas Marshals 38-37 in overtime.
“They had the game in hand and gave it away,” Bramante said of the Revolution.
UP NEXT: After tonight’s game, the Gladiators will play four consecutive Saturday night home games at Tingley, beginning with the Wichita Force on March 24. All games will be at 6:05 p.m.
That’s the good news. After that come four straight road games wrapped around a bye, which means the Gladiators will go six weeks between home games.
“It is what it is and I can’t do anything about it,” a not-so-happy Bramante said.