Soul Look To Get Back On Track Monday In Portland
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For the second straight week the Philadelphia Soul will travel cross-country.
Last week the destination was Phoenix and the Soul lost to the Arizona Rattlers, 80-63. Now Philadelphia travels to Portland for a Monday night match-up with the Steel.
The loss to the Rattlers dropped the Soul to 9-3.
KYW's Matt Leon spoke with Soul head coach Clint Dolezel. Listen to full podcast here: (3:29)
"We were in a pretty good rhythm, I guess about midway through the second quarter," Soul head coach Clint Dolezel tells KYW Newsradio. "We were scoring. We weren't doing a very good job of pinning them deep on special teams and they had great field position all night long, which made it a little easier on them offensively. Then they got a bar ball there midway through the second quarter and it just totally flip-flopped things. Momentum swung their way, they got a pick on a tip ball and then it just kind of snowballed. We didn't play well, we didn't have much go our way, but I was proud of the guys. Second half they came out and battled, even down three scores, they fought hard. We even cut it to ten at one point, so I was pleased with the guys effort."
Portland is just 1-10 this season, that is tied for the worst record in the AFL. But Dolezel says they are playing better football as of late.
"Getting Shane Austin back from Canada, the quarterback that played in Cleveland the last several years, is a big help for them," Dolezel says. "Smart, good, athletic quarterback that can run around when things break down. The defense has been pretty solid all year long. The last three weeks they've played really good football. They beat Tampa really bad (68-35 on June 3rd) and Cleveland last week, they had a great chance to beat them (lost 58-49), just didn't have much go their way either. So they're playing better."
Philadelphia has already played Portland once this season. The Soul beat the Steel 70-32 back on April 17th at the Center.
Monday night's game will kickoff at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
