Soul Get Tampa Bay In First Round Of AFL Playoffs

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Arena Football League playoffs begin on Sunday for the Philadelphia Soul. They will host the Tampa Bay Storm up in Allentown in a first-round match-up.

The Soul wrapped up the regular season in impressive fashion last weekend, going down to Florida and beating the Orlando Predators, 67-59. The win gave the Soul the American Conference regular season title with a record of 13-3. Head Clint Dolezel says his team played well.

"They came out and performed like we hoped they would, played with a lot of energy," Dolezel tells KYW Newsradio. "Treated it like a playoff game and came out on top. We did some things really, really well in that game and I was very pleased."

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

This season, the AFL featured just eight teams, so everyone qualified for the post-season. That's why Tampa Bay is still playing despite going just 2-14 during the regular season.

While the Soul won 11 more games than the Storm this year, when these two teams last met in Florida back on July 16th the Storm gave the Soul all they could handle and then some. Philadelphia escaped with a 55-51 win. The Soul also beat Tampa back on May 9th, 47-17.

Dolezel talks about a big key to success for his team going forward.

"Biggest thing is taking care of the football for us," Dolezel says. "When we don't play well, it's usually because we're not taking care of the football, just kind of out there going through the motions. I don't think that's going to happen from here on out."

The winner of this game plays the winner of Orlando and Jacksonville in the conference finals.

Sunday's game kicks off at 6:00pm.