Soul Host Cleveland Saturday In Key Early Season Battle

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- There are just two undefeated teams left in the Arena Football League after three games. One is San Jose, the other is the Philadelphia Soul.

The Soul stayed perfect on Sunday as they held off the Jacksonville Sharks in their home opener, 63-52.  This start is a welcomed turnaround from last season when Philadelphia opened up 0-3.

"So far I feel like, we've overmatched teams," Soul head coach Clint Dolezel tells KYW Newsradio. "We definitely have a little more talent in certain spots. The guys are gelling pretty fast, still have a long ways to go as far as that goes."

Listen to the entire interview with the Soul's Clint Dolezel

Cleveland is 2-1 this season and that means they already have as many losses this season as they did in 2014, when they went 17-1 during the regular season, advancing to the Arena Bowl.

"Anytime we play Cleveland it's a big rivalry," Dolezel says. "They've got a good football team, they've got a good coach. They know how to win football games close. They've got a lot of the same players from last year. It is a big game from a lot of different standpoints. It's a divisional game. We want to separate, they lost last week (49-41 at Arizona), they're going to come off that, they're going to be hungry. We've got to keep pushing the pedal down."

Philadelphia went 0-3 against the Gladiators last season, including a loss in the playoffs. The defeats were, for the most part, excruciating as the three losses came by a combined total of just five points.

"Biggest thing is, we didn't know how to finish games last year," Dolezel says. "We weren't able to get those close wins. So far we haven't really been pushed too much, except for maybe the Orlando game, as far as being really close. I hope it stays that way. I hope we're up a couple touchdowns when we're finishing games, but that's not always going to be the case. We're going to be in some tight football games, we know it, and I think we've got enough veterans on this team to push through that."

Philadelphia and Cleveland will kickoff at 7:00pm at the Center on Saturday night.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.