Gladiators look to push win streak to three games

Duke City continues homestand with game against Dallas today

The Duke City Gladiators, entering the second weekend of a four-game homestand, will face the Dallas Marshals at 6:05 tonight when the teams meet in Champions Indoor Football play at Tingley Coliseum.

Duke City will be looking for a third-straight victory to open its 12-game regular season, and for the third week in a row will face a team coming off a bye. But that scenario didn’t slow the Gladiators in their previous two outings.

On March 17, a week after playing a non-league exhibition game, the Gladiators won on the road against the Texas Revolution (0-3), 36-12. Then last week Duke City defeated the Wichita Force (1-2) at Tingley, 60-38.

Now come the Marshals (1-2), a team on a two-game losing streak that has gone 2-11 on the road in its three-year history, with both victories coming last year against a 0-12 Centex team that isn’t fielding a team this year. Conversely, the Gladiators are 14-4 at home in their

four years.

Continuing to lead the charge for Duke City is the defense, headed by the unit’s pass rush, which had Wichita QBs throwing off their back foot most of last week’s game. Defensive lineman Brett Bowers is heading the team with three sacks, ranking second in the league. Tied for third in the CIF are Duke City DE Matt Moss and Manzano High alum Jayson Serda a DB, with 2.5. The team has 10 total, tops in the league even though four of the 11 league teams have played one more game.

A key to the game for Dallas no doubt will be attempting to generate a running game to avoid too many obvious passing situations. Through their three games, though, the Marshals have averaged only 27 yards per outing. By contrast, Duke City averages 104 yards a game.

On offense for the Gladiators, WR Dello Davis provided a big spark with three TDs last week, two coming on passes from QB Caleb Holbrook, his only two scoring throws of the season. Two years ago with Duke City, Davis had a league-high 35 TD receptions — 10 more than anyone else.

The Gladiators will play host to the Amarillo Venom (2-0) next Saturday at Tingley in a battle for first place in the South Conference. Amarillo is at Wichita tonight.