SaberCats Win ArenaBowl XXI

The ‘Cats held the Destroyers to a playoff-low 33 points.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

NEW ORLEANS - The San Jose SaberCats earned their third championship in six seasons with a 55-33 win over the Columbus Destroyers in ArenaBowl XXI in front of a sold out crowd of 15,147 at New Orleans Arena.

San Jose QB Mark Grieb, who was named the Mitsubishi Motors Most Valuable Player, passed for 218 yards (24-of-29) with four touchdowns and no interceptions, and WR James Roe added eight catches for 76 yards and two scores, while WR Rodney Wright chipped in with 10 catches for 94 yards in the win.

“(Winning the ArenaBowl) is awesome,” Grieb said after the game. “It’s a great feeling. We’re a great team with so many good people. It is just an awesome group.”

Defensively, the secondary duo of Clevan Thomas and Omarr Smith both added interceptions for San Jose, and the ‘Cats held the Destroyers to a playoff-low 33 points.

Columbus QB Matt Nagy finished the game 24-of-43 for 203 yards with four TDs and two INTs, and WR Damien Groce added 10 catches for 99 yards and a score in the loss.

Led by a core group of veterans on both sides of the ball, San Jose controlled the game from the opening kickoff, scoring touchdowns on eight of their nine offensive possessions. Defensively, the SaberCats sacked Nagy twice and forced five stops, including two interceptions.

“They did a great job of putting pressure on me up front and being physical in the secondary,” Nagy said. “Our offense just wasn’t able to get into a rhythm.”

The victory marked San Jose’s third championship (2002, 2004, 2007) in six seasons and improved head coach Darren Arbet’s record to 3-0 all-time in ArenaBowl games.

With the win, Arbet becomes just the second coach in AFL history (Tim Marcum) to win three ArenaBowl championships.

“We have great ownership and they give us everything we need to be successful,” Arbet said.

After earning the No. 1 seed in the American Conference and a first-round bye in the playoffs, San Jose (13-3, 3-0) defeated Colorado and Chicago to earn their third trip to the ArenaBowl, and finished the season on a 13-game winning streak (10 regular season and three playoff games).

In uncharacteristic Arena Football style, the game opened with a pair of rushing touchdowns before Grieb found Roe in the corner of the end zone for a 7-yard score to give the ‘Cats a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

San Jose got on the board first with a 4-yard touchdown run by Brian Johnson to take a 7-0 lead, but Columbus answered with a 1-yard run by Harold Wells to tie the score with 6:33 left in the first quarter.

Grieb connected with Roe for a 7-yard score on the ‘Cats next possession to take a 14-7 advantage, but the Destroyers answered with a 10-play, 42-yard drive scoring drive that ate up 7:27 seconds.

Nagy found tight end Jason Hillard on a fourth and goal play to tie the score at 14 with 10:03 left in the second.

SaberCats kick returner Trestin George excited the crowd on the ensuing kickoff by fielding the kick off the end zone rebound net and returning it 56 yards for a score and a 20-14 lead (kicker A.J. Haglund missed the PAT).

San Jose got the first stop of the game midway through the second quarter when Thomas intercepted a Nagy pass that was tipped at the line of scrimmage by defensive lineman George Williams.

Williams then came in on offense and capped a 45-yard scoring drive with a 1-yard catch on fourth and goal to give San Jose a 27-14 advantage with 3:01 left in the second.

The SaberCats defense notched a three-and-out on the Destroyers next possession but Johnson fumbled inside the Columbus 10-yard line to turn the ball back over to Columbus with less than a minute remaining.

The half ended on a missed 41-yard field goal by Destroyers kicker Peter Martinez.

Columbus took the second-half kickoff and closed the gap to 27-21 on a 3-yard scoring pass from Nagy to Cole Magner, but San Jose answered with a 4-yard pass from Grieb to Ben Nelson to give the SaberCats a 13-point cushion.

The Destroyers closed the margin to 34-27 on a 39-yard TD pass from Nagy to Groce to close the quarter.

San Jose opened the fourth quarter with a 1-yard run by Phil Glover to go up 41-27 and added a 20-yard scoring pass from Roe to Nagy to take a 48-27 advantage midway through the fourth quarter.

Columbus WR David Saunders hauled in an 8-yard TD pass with under a minute to play to close the gap to 48-33, but the SaberCats put the game away with a 4-yard TD run by Johnson with 38 seconds remaining.

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