Duke City set to begin a daunting journey
Road trip features 3 tough opponents
After an extended layoff the Duke City Gladiators are scheduled to return to Champions Indoor Football league action tonight when they travel to Amarillo to open the grueling homestretch portion of their schedule.
Duke City’s journey to the Texas Panhandle is the first of three straight trips to meet teams atop the South Division standings. After facing the Venom (6-1), the Gladiators (4-3) will take bus rides the next two weekends to tangle with the Dodge City (Kan.) Law and then the Texas Revolution in Allen. Duke City closes its season at home at Tingley Coliseum on May 27 against Amarillo and June 3 vs. Dodge City.
“The guys came back in great shape and were ready to go like they hadn’t taken the time off; they’re pros,” said thirdyear Duke City coach Dominic Bramante, who gave his team two weeks off after their most recent game, a 52-50 victory on April 15 against the visiting Salina (Kan.) Liberty. The players reported back for practice Monday. Most of them anyway. Bramante said that Duke City’s leading receiver, Larry Cobb, has made the leap to the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. Cobb had 11 TD catches this season, tied for fourth best in the league, and averaged 15.5 yards a reception, which is second best. Kyle Patterson, a defensive end, left the Gladiators for personal reasons.
Today will be the third of four meetings this season against Amarillo, which won in Albuquerque 70-69 in overtime on March 11 on a game-ending 2-point conversion and on April 2 in Amarillo, 62-59.
What’s going to make the road to the playoffs especially tough for Duke City is that its remaining schedule is against teams with a cumulative 31-6 mark, counting the records of Amarillo and Dodge City twice for the two meetings. The Dallas Marshals also are 4-3, but their remaining foes are a combined 8-28, with games this week and next against the winless Centex Cavalry.
The Wichita (Kan.) Force stands a game back at 3-4 and its remaining opponents have a 16-21 mark.
“We accept the challenge, but it should never have been this way,” Bramante said of a schedule that has his team facing Dodge City and Amarillo a total of seven times in 12 games. “But we’re going to be up to the challenge. It’s going to be a genuine gantlet for sure.”
The silver lining, if there is one, is that the Gladiators would hold the tiebreaker against the Marshals (strength of schedule) and against the Force (head-tohead record).
NOTES: Gladiators quarterback Donovan Porterie, a former Lobo, no longer has the most TD passes in the league with 38. During the past two weeks he was passed by Amarillo’s Nate Davis, who has 43, including eight in last week’s 96-95 loss on the road to Texas . ... The Gladiators plan to leave by bus at 9:30 this morning for the Amarillo Civic Center. The team will return home after the game and are expected to be back in Albuquerque by about 3 a.m. Sunday.