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Soul Go For 2-0 Start Saturday In Spokane

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- It will be a second-straight road game to start the 2015 Arena Football League season for the Philadelphia Soul on Saturday night as they visit the Spokane Shock.

The Soul opened the campaign in style on Sunday night, holding off the Predators down in Orlando, 70-63, behind an eight touchdown performance from veteran quarterback Dan Raudabaugh.

"Dan played well," Soul head coach Clint Dolezel tells KYW Newsradio. "The whole receiving corps played well, they had big numbers."

Listen: Clint Dolezel with KYW's Matt Leon

 

The top pass catcher was Marco Thomas, who had 14 receptions for 154 yards and three scores. Ryan McDaniel had 10 receptions for 150 yards, and he also scored three times.

The Soul lost kicker Carlos Martinez early in the game to an injury, so they really had to piece it together on special teams. They cashed in on five two-point conversions and kickoff duties fell to backup quarterback Bryan Randall.

"(Randall) does it all for us on special teams," Dolezel says. "He'll hold, he runs down on kickoffs a lot of times, he'll be on returns and (Sunday) night he was kicking for us. So he did a great job."

Philadelphia signed Tommy Frevert this week to take over the kicking duties with Martinez injured.

Spokane lost its season opener on Saturday, falling on the road to Arizona, 60-43. The Shock went 11-7 last season, qualifying for the playoffs.

"They've got a good football coach (Andy Olson)," Dolezel says. "In my opinion he was the coach of the year, last year. I thought he did a great job with them and didn't get it. It's a tough place to play. I think their number one thing is how good their crowd is and how much of an advantage it is to play at home for them."

The Soul and the Shock get underway at 10:00pm Eastern on Saturday night.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.

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