Rattlers hold off Blaze rally
A win for the Arizona Rattlers meant three days off to spend time with their mothers, no doubt a welcome respite after their 65-48 win over the Utah Blaze Saturday night at the US Airways Center.
The Rattlers’ defensive backs could use the rest. Jeremy Kellem, Virgil Gray and Arkeith Brown had a busy night knocking down passes, recovering and returning fumbles and making interceptions.
Gray stopped a sure touchdown with a key defensive play and returned a kickoff for a score. Brown recovered Gray’s forced fumble and picked off a pair of passes and Kellem broke up a team-high seven passes. The Rattlers lost starting defensive back Marquis Floyd to injury before halftime, so there was no coming out of the game for the other three.
“We made a lot of plays on defense,” Kellem said. “As a whole … we played a pretty good game. For myself, I made some mistakes and gave up touchdowns. At the end of the day, we came out with the victory and we’ll just suck it up, learn from the film and hopefully come out with a victory next game.”
The Rattlers, playing before a crowd of 10,216, won their fourth straight game and remained in first place in the AFL’s West Division with a 7-1 record.
The Blaze rallied to cut it to a seven-point deficit with a pair of late fourth-quarter touchdowns, the latter set up when Utah’s Caesar Rayford forced a fumble on a sack of Rattlers’ quarterback Nick Davila. But the Blaze’s onside kick try was recovered by the Rattlers, and Garrett Lindholm made a 21-yard field goal with 56 seconds to play.
Lindholm had missed two field goal tries earlier in the game.
The Rattlers added a final touchdown with 39 seconds left, as Odie Armstrong rumbled into the end zone. Armstrong scored three times on the night.
Arizona trailed 14-0 after a pair of Tommy Grady first-quarter touchdown passes for Utah (3-4). Gray returned the kickoff after the second touchdown 56 yards to get the Rattlers on the board.
After Brown intercepted Grady, the Rattlers drove for a tying touchdown, a three-yard run by Armstrong with 19 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Blaze looked poised to re- take the lead when Grady hit Mario Urrutia downfield. Gray was in coverage trailing the play, and managed to knock the ball out of Urrutia’s arms and into the end zone. Brown picked up the loose ball and returned it to around midfield.
“Those guys make plays,” Rattlers coach Kevin Guy said. “We’ve got a bunch of playmakers on the defensive side of the ball and they’re able to score anytime they get their hands on the ball.”
The play was the turning point of the game, as Davila hit Armstrong for a short touchdown pass and a 2114 lead. Arizona never trailed again.
The Rattlers swept the season series between the two teams, winning both meetings this season. All of Arizona’s wins this season have been by double digits.
The Rattlers play the Chicago Rush in Chicago next Sunday.