It looked like the Force was going to win their third consecutive game and improve to 4-1. But an injury to quarterback Brett Elliott late caused the Force to turn to backup Darnell Kennedy, who threw an interception on their final drive of the game and the Orlando Predators held on for the 48-43 win at the Gwinnett Arena.
“It stings a lot,” Force defensive back Ahmad Hawkins said who finished the game with two tackles and three pass breakups. “We got up on a great team and we had them up against the ropes. We just didn’t give them that knockout punch. They just made plays at the end of the game.”
The Force was leading 37-28 when the fourth quarter began, but the Predators started their surge with a Nick Hill 3-yard touchdown pass to Robert Quiroga to cut the Force lead to two. After missed field goal by Force kicker Carlos Martinez, Orlando was able to take the lead when Mar Moye Moore scored on a 1-yard run to go up by 42-37.
When the Force attempted the field goal, it was the series when Elliott was injured and Kennedy went in deep in Georgia territory. On his first play of the game, Kennedy fumbled the snap and barely got it out of the end zone to avoid the safety.
The Force did take the lead back with a Kennedy 7-yard touchdown rush to go up 43-42. Hill had something to say about that, though, scoring on a 23-yard touchdown run to put the Predators up for good with 38 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
The Force opened the game in a huge way as return specialist C.J. Johnson returned the opening kick for a 57-yard touchdown. The Force defense came up with a turnover on downs on Orlando’s opening offensive series and that led to another Force score as receiver Larry Ship threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Johnson and the Force increased their lead to 14 early in the first quarter.
Orlando answered with a score of their own when Hill threw a touchdown pass to Quiroga on the ensuing drive, but Elliott threw his first touchdown pass of the game to Maurice Purify to answer the Orlando score and the Force ended the first quarter with a 14 point lead.
The second quarter was a defensive battle for both teams. Orlando would score at the beginning of the quarter with a Hill 28-yard touchdown pass to Antoin Toliver to cut the Force lead to seven. But the Predators would not score for the rest of the quarter due to a missed field goal on their second series and a series of penalties on their third series.
Georgia could not capitalize on Orlando’s miscues because they were hit with the turnover bug. In their three offensive possessions in the quarter Elliott threw two interceptions and Martinez kicked a 17-yard field goal to give the Force a 10-point lead going into halftime.
Orlando cut the Force lead early in the third quarter when Hill threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Sippio. The Force answered with an Elliott 6-yard touchdown pass to Michael Johnson to increase their lead back to 10. However, Orlando cut the Force lead back to three when Hill threw a 6-yard score to Toliver, but that was short lived when Elliott threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Purify to increase their lead to nine at the end of the quarter.
Elliott finished the game completing 20-of-27 passes with 215 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. The status of his injury is unknown but Force officials will know more when an MRI is done on Monday. Elliott’s counterpart, Hill was named Offensive Player of the Game, completing 25-of-40 passes with 328 yards and five touchdowns. Force defensive lineman Jerry Turner won Defensive Player of the Game as he notched three sacks in the loss.
With the loss, the Force drop to 3-2 and they are currently one game behind Orlando and Jacksonville for the South Division lead. Their next game will be on Saturday when they will be on the road to take on the Milwaukee Mustangs.
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