Finals bound
The Duke City Gladiators take out Texas to advance to indoor football championship game
The Duke City Gladiators survived another high-wire act Monday night at Tingley Coliseum and in the process secured a berth in the Champions Indoor Football championship game.
For the second straight playoff game, the outcome was in doubt in the final minute. This time the Gladiators hung on for a 41-28 victory over the Texas Revolution in the CIF semifinals before an announced crowd of 2,652. Duke City’s tack-on TD with 5 seconds left puffed its margin.
Last week, the Gladiators rallied for a 50-39 win over Wichita.
“We’re not satisfied yet, we’ve got one more hill to climb,” said Duke City coach Dominic Bramante said amid joyous players and fans on the field after the game.
“We knew this was going to be a fourth-quarter game and that the defending champions were going to play hard to the very last play of the game. And that’s what this came down to.”
The title game is set for Saturday against the Sioux City Bandits (11-3),
With 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter Monday, it appeared the Gladiators were on the way to a comfortable victory. They held a 35-21 lead and had the ball at the Texas 5 with a first down. QB Caleb Holbrook then threw toward receiver Dello Davis, who leads the league in receiving TDs. In a tug-of-war for the ball, the Revs defender wrestled it from Davis and returned the ball to the Gladiators’ 12. That defender was Frankie Solomon II, a UNM alum.
“Dello’s a great receiver and he had his hands on it and I had my hands on it,” Solomon said. “I think the quarterback threw a little behind him so I had a little more of my hands on it in the tussle for the ball.”
At first, it appeared Solomon would score.
“I ’m just not as fast as I used to be,” he said.
In short order, Texas scored to make it 35-28 with 1:28 left in the fourth.
On the ensuing kickoff, however, Texas failed to execute an onside kick and the Gladiators took over at the Revs’ 21 and kept possession until the late score, a 20-yard pass from Holbrook to Juwan Lewis.
Now the Gladiators face a short week before facing the Bandits.
Said Gladiators receiver Jared Elmore: “We’re so excited and so amped up we could play tomorrow night if we needed to.”
INJURY REPORT: Veteran receiver Dexter Manley, who has been with Duke City during its four-year existence, suffered a torn patella in the first half reaching for a Holbrook throw in the end zone.
“I was going up for a pass and my knee buckled and (the defender) body came down on my knee.” He said he will need surgery.
■ Also suffering a leg injury was kicker Kimo Naehu, who said his left (non-kicking) leg buckled while making contact with Texas players on a kickoff. He said he didn’t know the extent of the injury.