Top overall seed is at stake in finale
Hostile atmosphere expected in Wichita
The final game of the Champions Indoor Football season comes with high stakes today for both teams when the Duke City Gladiators face the host Wichita Force in a matinee outing.
Duke City (9-2), which already has clinched the South Conference title and home field for the first two rounds of the playoffs beginning next week, will be out to get the top overall seed in the CIF with a victory. Wichita (4-7), meanwhile, is playing for its football life by trying to qualify for the eight-team postseason tournament.
The Gladiators are coming off one of the most remarkable games in the five-year history of the league when they beat the Texas Revolution 37-0 on June 2 at Tingley Coliseum. It’s the only shutout in CIF history. That game came two months after Duke City beat the Dallas Marshals 95-49, the most points by anyone this year in a CIF game.
“Maybe after the season I’ll sit down with a cigar and say, ‘Wow, we had a shutout,’” fourthyear Duke City coach Dominic Bramante said after Thursday morning’s two-hour practice at Tingley. “But right now we don’t have time to enjoy it.
“It’s like the famous (Bill) Belichick line, ‘We’re on to Buffalo, or Cincinnati,’ and that’s really how it is. Your mindset is on to the next challenge.”
In this case, that means they’re on to Wichita, which is roughly a nine-hour bus ride from Albuquerque to southcentral Kansas.
Fatu Ulale, a 6-foot-3, 285-pound University of New Mexico alumnus, is one of the anchors of a defensive line that has put relentless pressure on quarterbacks while also stuffing the run. Foes have averaged a league-low 22.1 ground yards a game, about a third of the CIF norm. Two seasons ago, Duke City yielded 80.1 an outing.
“I try to get off the line fast and have planned moves,” Ulale said of his pass rush that has resulted in seven sacks this season.
He said there was added motivation to thump the Revolution last week, coming two weeks after a 62-37 loss at Texas.
“We owed them one,” said Ulale, in his third season with Duke City. “They killed us when we went over there, so this one felt great. But we were taking it one quarter at a time.”
Dontrell Johnson, a 5-10, 185-pound defensive back, is a stalwart in the secondary and is familiar with the hostile atmosphere the Gladiators will face today. On May 5, Duke City won at Wichita 58-40, with Johnson having eight tackles (second best on the team) and a pass breakup.
“It’s kind of tough playing there,” Johnson said. “Their fan base even knows our names from the programs, so they kind of talk trash to us. But since we know the atmosphere, that will make it a lot better.”
Bramante emphasized the Gladiators can’t afford penalties.
“We’ve got a huge challenge ahead of us,” he said. “They’ve got those five officials, who are tough to deal with. So we have to play as clean a game as we possibly can to keep those officials
from determining the outcome.
“All I want from the officials is consistency. I don’t care it’s consistently bad or consistently good. As long as it’s consistent.”
TIEBREAKER: If the Gladiators lose today to drop to 9-3, they will be tied with the North’s Sioux City and Salina for best record in the league. If Duke City were then to meet either team in the title game, home field would be determined by strength of schedule.
UPCOMING: This coming Saturday, Duke City will host a playoff game vs. a team to be determined.