Phantoms continue to defy odds

The Florence Phantoms have spent an entire season proving people wrong.

There were naysayers who thought the problems that marred the 2007 season would mimic themselves, especially when coach Carlos Clayton resigned less than two weeks before the season opener.

Others thought the Phantoms would crumble under the hot glare of a postseason spotlight. After all, Florence was heading to a place where the home team hadn’t lost in two years, and a title-game berth was hanging in the balance.

Once again, Florence proved otherwise.

Nearly three months after suffering their worst loss of the season, the Phantoms rolled into Reading Saturday night and stunned the Express 52-37.

The win snapped Reading’s 19-game winning streak at the Sovereign Center and vaulted the Phantoms (12-4) to the American Indoor Football Association championship game at Florence Civic Center on July 25 against the winner of Friday’s Western Conference title game between Mississippi and Wyoming.

“When I came here from Lakeland in January, I said we were going to win a championship,” said Florence general manager Bennie King, whose team lost to Reading 66-30 on April 25. “This is a ‘show-me’ business, and we had to make a lot of moves that weren’t very popular.

“On this level, you have to go through transition to get it right. The naysayers have nothing to hold over our heads now. We have the right people in the front office, in the coaching staff and on the field.”

In the short week after their rout of Huntington, the Phantoms worked on handling the crowd noise with one goal in mind — silencing it. Nearly 3,200 fans watched as their team missed out on a league title for the third straight season.

“We just came up short once again,” Express wide receiver Carmelo Ocasio told the Reading Eagle. “We’ve had the teams, we’ve had the talent.

Despite allowing the most points during its nine-game winning streak, Florence’s defense came up big at huge moments.

The Phantoms intercepted Express quarterback Rob Flowers three times. The first was returned 29 yards for a score by Larry Thompson nearly four minutes into the contest.

The unquestioned turning point of the game occured in the third quarter. After the Express defense made a stop, Flowers threw 13 yards to Shawn Foxworth and 14 yards to Kelly to give Reading a first down the Phantoms 1.

But Flowers, who rushed for two touchdowns and passed for three, was stopped short of the goal line on three straight runs. On fourth down, a high snap sailed over Flowers’ head and ended in a 21-yard loss.

“Those you’ve got to put in the end zone,” Express coach Bernie Nowotarski told the Reading Eagle. “You end up three inches away and don’t put it in.
Maybe we should have passed, I don’t know. We just did not execute when we needed to.”

“The defense couldn’t have played any better than they did (against the Express),” King said. “The interception by (Thompson) was the first blow. The goal-line stand was the final one.”

Florence has played in hostile environments before. Trailing 31-7 at Fayetteville at halftime on April 13, the Phantoms mounted a record comeback to shock 5,000 fans at Crown Coliseum with a 39-38 win.

To the Phantoms, Reading and their fans were no different.

“(The crowd noise) was deafening at one moment, quiet as a mouse the next,” King said. “When we scored so quickly against them, they were shocked. (Reading’s fans) weren’t used to seeing something like that.”

King added the win is the penultimate chapter to a story whose first lines were written at the end of last season.

“The Phantoms were mired in mediocrity the first two years. Let’s get that straight,” he said. “We set out to change the culture of this franchise, and now we’re one win away from bringing a title to Florence.”