Post by cavfan on Jul 5, 2010 12:03:26 GMT -5
The Wyoming Cavalry hosted the San Jose Wolves on Sunday night in the final regular-season game for both teams.
Consider it a preview of the American Indoor Football Association Western Division playoffs.
That's because the two teams will meet again Saturday back at the Casper Events Center, with the winner advancing to AIFA Bowl IV on July 24.
Wyoming (12-1) wrapped up the division title weeks ago while San Jose (9-4) finally secured the No. 2 spot with last week's 44-28 victory over Yakima Valley.
All of which had Cavalry coach Dan Maciejczak unsure of what to expect in Sunday night's game.
"We want to be careful not to put all our cards on the table," Maciejczak said. "But we're still going to do all we can to win the game."
Winning has not been a problem for the Cavs in recent years — they've lost just four regular season games in the past four years.
But facing the Wolves twice in the next six days, and coming off a 43-39 loss to Wenatchee Valley last week after a five-week layoff, was enough to concern Maciejczak.
"We're still behind schedule," Maciejczak said. "We're going to go with our starters so they can get back up to game speed, but we are going to rotate some guys in.
"We want to be sharp in our execution, but we don't want to get anybody hurt, especially since we're going to be playing [the Wolves] again in less than a week."
The Cavs already own two wins against the Wolves -– 54-25 on April 16 and 80-53 on May 22 -– but both of those came when the Cavs were playing on a weekly basis. Sunday's game was just the second in six weeks for Wyoming.
Still, not every player on the team believed the lack of games should have affected the way the Cavs played as they gear up for the playoffs.
"It shouldn't hurt us at all," Cavs defensive lineman Rhett Abernathy said. "We just came out flat in the beginning [against Wenatchee Valley] and we didn't get it done.
"We have to get our intensity back, but we'll be all right."
That left Sunday night's game as somewhat of a chess match between Maciejczak and Wolves coach Bennie King.
Obviously, both teams wanted to win. But no matter the outcome, the Cavs and Wolves will strap it up again Saturday, although with a little bit more on the line in their fourth meeting of the season.
"We know what they're going to do and everybody knows what we're going to do," Maciejczak said. "So in the end it's going to come down to the players.
"We're going to try to win this game while still getting ready for July 11th
CAVALRY 47, WOLVES 26: The Wyoming defense came up with six sacks and knocked San Jose starting quarterback Patrick Carras out of the game to end the first half en route to a surprisingly easy victory Sunday at the Casper Events Center.
The Cavs (13-1) scored on every possession but their first one as they bounced back from their first loss of the season.
Matt Strand threw five touchdown passes and Antar Brame returned a fumble 49 yards for the decisive score early in the fourth quarter.
The same two teams will meet next Sunday in the American Indoor Football Association Western Division playoffs.
I really Hope Carras is ok he took a massive hit at the end of 2nd quarter and had to be wheel out and taken right to the hospital
here is sending out wishes to him that he is ok looked like a head injury he laid motionless looked like for at least a good 5 mins prayers go out to him .