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PFL NEWS
Alabama Warriors versus Crestview Thunderbirds Loss / 62-7
Well, what can be said about a score like that? A brief attempt to pass a few excuses. For starters, we arrived about 2:30PM, went to our locker room, changed, and got onto the field. Kickoff at 4PM. We left Crestview at 8:15AM and were stiff when we got off the bus. That’ll never happen again.
Crusaders finish strong to defeat rival Pensacola Wolfpac
33-19.
Coming off their first loss of the season, things didn’t get any easier for the Panhandle Crusaders. Next on the schedule was a 2008 PFL Bowl rematch with the 5-0 Pensacola Wolfpac. “Sometimes a man must be knocked down, to stand back up as a champion” Offensive Coordinator, Trey Bonner, told his guys. The heartbreaking loss to the Hurricanes the week before could either bring the Crusaders together as champions or tear the whole thing apart.
It was obvious right from the start this was going to be a fierce, knock down, drag out fight. The trash talking started in pre game warm ups, and never really stopped. The Wolfpac won the coin toss, but deferred to the second half, so the Crusaders’ offense would get to open the game.
When the Crusaders took the field, they were looking for what they were missing in the game with the Hurricanes, their running game. Cratez Abrams, who was averaging over 100 yards a game, was held below 20 yards last week. Abrams started with a 9 yard run to the right. On the next play, he went the right again where the offensive line had opened a gaping hole. Abrams busted loose for a 55 yard run down inside ten yard line. Just when it looked like the Wolfpac defense was going to hold, Octavious Smith went in from 1 yard out on a quarterback sneak on forth down. The extra point was blocked. The Wolfpac offense came out looking to answer the touchdown. After getting across midfield, the Crusaders’ defense stood strong on forth and short and forced the Wolfpac offense off the field. The Crusaders were unable to do anything on their second drive and gave the ball right back to the Wolfpac. This time they drove down and put up their first touchdown. The extra point was good, giving the Wolfpac the lead 7-6. After the Wolfpac had the lead, the game turned into a defensive slug fest. Neither defense would give up much to the opposing offense. The first half ended with Wolfpac leading by a single point, 7-6. After a short delay, the officials came out of their locker room to get the second half under way. The Wolfpac got the ball to start the second half and it looked like it was going to go just the way the first half ended. Both defenses were playing strong and not giving up a whole lot.
With time running down in the third quarter, Crusaders quarterback, Octavious Smith finally started to find his stride. Smith was 0 for 5 throwing the ball in the first half against a very stingy Wolfpac defense. He completed his first pass to former Wolpac player, Dale Mack, for 36 yards, and then hit David Jennings for a 32 yard touchdown pass with 1:33 left in the third quarter. The extra point was blocked.
The fourth quarter begin with the Wolfpac in possession of the football, and just like a heavyweight title fight, they kept swinging. They would open the scoring in the fourth quarter with a touchdown pass, but the extra point was no good, being pushed wide right. It was enough, however, for them to regain the lead 13-12.
The Crusaders came back out on offense and looked to keep the passing game rolling. Smith would hit Kelvin King for a 30 yard pass. After running the ball on 2 straight plays and not gaining much, Smith would drop back to pass again, this time finding Mack for a 20 yard touchdown pass with 7:49 left in game. The two point conversion was no good.
Now trailing 18-13, the Crusaders defense turned it up another notch. Ruth Lewis would force a fumble that was recovered right in front of Wolfpac bench by Corey Thompson. The offense would make the best of the turnover and a penalty against Wolfpac head coach Paul Smith. Running plays by Abrams and Smith would get the ball down inside the ten yard line. With 4:17 showing on the clock, Smith would hit King on slant pass for a touchdown. The Crusaders once again would go for two, this time Smith would find King on fade route in the corner of the end zone, giving them a more comfortable lead, 26-13. With time running out on the Wofpac’s perfect season hopes, they would try to take advantage of their height on the outside. Ken Johnson would lay a pass out to the right side, but Thompson was laying in wait, making his first interception of the season.
When the Crusaders took the field this time, they were going for the jugular. Smith would hit Bernard White streaking down the sideline for a 45 yard touchdown with 1:31 left in the game. Kevin Kent would tack on the extra point, giving the Crusaders a commanding 20 point lead, 33-13. The Wolfpac would not go quietly, scoring one more touchdown with :03 left on the clock. The two point conversion would be stuffed on the one yard line. Saturday showed a great battle by two of the top teams in the PFL. It was a great show for the fans on both sides. When the game ended, players on both teams went against what they were told to show their respect to each other. In any heated rivalry there are always fans who take things to far. Coach Will Walker addressed both teams at mid field saying “The battle was on the field and should be left there.” He went on to say, “everyone knows the road to the trophy has to go through these two teams, and it’s gonna be a tough road for all of them”. Saturday was a rivalry game at it’s finest
33-19.
South Alabama Seminoles versus Crestview Thunderbirds
Win / 27-24 Crestview Thunderbirds hosted the South Alabama Seminoles on Davidson Middle Schools field. This was a battle of 0-4 versus 0-4. Both teams needed a win and this was a nail biter of a game with neither team ever having a comfortable lead over the other. Seminoles received the ball and it was give and take all first quarter with neither team scoring. By half time the score was in our favor 15-8. First time in our team's history we were ahead on the score board. Half time and the coaches were busy making defensive and offensive adjustments trying to get us ready for second half. Spirits were high but this was definitely anyone's game. Second half and we kick off to the Seminoles again. By the end of the third quarter, we're trailing again. Fourth quarter is upon us and the tension is thick on both sides of the field. We score again and in the lead but there's still about 3-4 minutes in the last quarter and Seminoles have the ball. Everyone knows that another touchdown on either side will end the game. Seems that no one is smiling and the tension is high as we watch the Seminoles get closer to the their end of the field. Finally they throw an interception and with about 25 seconds on the clock, that ended the game with our first victory! Players dancing on the field and celebrating our first win. We went out and shook hands and then held the group prayer. After that, we all gathered in the middle to celebrate as Carson dumped ice water on Coach Taylor. Hope someone got a picture of that.
In the end, we still have some real hard teams ahead of us and we know that there's still a lot of work to do and adjustments to be made. However, in the first three games, we managed to score three points. In the last two games, we put up 53 points.
Alabama Warriors pick up NFL veteran Marcus Dowdell 
Marcus Dowdell, a star wide receiver from the old Banks High School who went on to play for the New Orleans Saints and the Arizona Cardinals, has joined the Alabama Warriors minor league football team.
Dowdell joined late last week, just in time to play for the Warriors in their season opener, a 19-13 loss to the Premier Football League champion Panhandle Crusaders in Pensacola, Fla. Dowdell was a star athlete in both football and basketball at Banks, leading the Jets to their first appearance in the state basketball championship in the late 1980s. (Ironically, Dowdell's old coach at Banks, Dale Hardiman, was practicing Monday night with his Senior Olympics gold-medal basketball team in the old Warrior High School gym, right next to the field the Warriors call home.) NFL.com lists Dowdell as playing two seasons each with the Saints and Cardinals. He then went on to the Canadian Football League to play for the Calgary Stampeders, where he took part in the 2000 Grey Cup, Canada's version of the Super Bowl. Most recently, Dowdell has been an assistant coach at Miles College in Fairfield. It was one of his former Golden Bears players, defensive back Justin Madison, who led Dowdell to the Warriors.
After the Falcons totally rolled over us first quarter, it appeared to be our turn to do a little rolling of our own as we put two more unanswered touch downs on the board. When it was 20-28, I heard the announcer stop saying "Victory Party" and started saying "After Party." Yes, everyone knew that at this point in the game, we had a chance for a major upset. Our fans were so loud we couldn't hear anything on the sidelines. Let me tell you, if you've never experienced it, you'll never understand. What a feeling. End of third quarter and Falcons score again and then two more times in fourth quarter for a decisive victory. Truthfully, while a win would have been phenomenal, we managed to score more touchdowns on the Falcons that they had scored on them in the last three games combined. At a 22 point spread, we didn't manage to close the gap as we wanted to but we did great. Everyone left there with their heads high and proud of what we had done. Falcons were again most gracious at the end of the game with several of their players telling us we had made a lot of improvements. As I wrote about the June 6th game, it'll take 3-4 games for us to play as a team. Well, this is our fourth game and as I predicted, we've come together as a team. Looking forward to the rest of the season!
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