FORCE BEAT: Philadelphia fly past the Force at the Gwinnett Arena

Former Georgia Force head coach Doug Plank was back at the Gwinnett Arena on Saturday night. But this time he was wearing different colors because he is the new head coach of the Philadelphia Soul.

To say it was a very nice trip to Duluth for Plank would be an understatement because the Soul took care of the Force 92-42.

The Soul started the onslaught in the first quarter and never looked back. They jumped to a 21-7 lead thanks to Soul quarterback Dan Raudabaugh throwing touchdown passes to Emory Sammons and Tiger Jones, and Force quarterback R.J. Archer throwing a pick-six to Joe Goosby on the Force’s opening play of the game.

Archer, who won the starting job over Darnell Kennedy at the start of the season, had issues taking care of the football all game long. Archer was 11-of -28 with 107 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions which were all returned for touchdowns. He did not play in the second half.

The Force (2-2) was able to narrow the gap early in the second when Archer threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Johnson to make the score 21-14. But with Raudabaugh throwing three touchdown passes, and Goosby as well as Rawyshau Kizer returning Archer’s interceptions for touchdowns made the score 56-28 at the half.

Archer was replaced by Kevin Eakin and threw two strikes to Larry Shipp to get the Force all the way to the Soul 1-yard line. But as Shipp was about to cross the endzone, Goosby stripped the ball out of Shipp’s hands and was recovered by Micha Robinson. That led to Raudabaugh 38-yard touchdown pass to Jones and the Soul led 63-28. The Soul would score two more times in the third with two rushing touchdowns by Derrick Ross to make the score 77-35 at the start of the fourth.

Ross would score another TD in the fourth and Jones tallied his third receiving score. And when the Soul defense sacked Eakin in the endzone at the start of the fourth, the Soul (3-1) ended the night with a franchise record 92 points.

Eakin ended up with solid numbers for the Force. He was 10-of-16 with 119 yards and two touchdowns. Shipp, Brandon McRae and C.J. Johnson all had one receiving touchdown and at least 50 receiving yards. As for the Soul, Raudabaugh was 16-of-20 with 272 yards and six touchdowns. He was named Offensive Player of the Game. Jones, who was awarded AFL Playmaker of the Game, had 180 receiving yards to go along with his three touchdowns. Goosby was named MVP of the Game and Defensive player of the game for intercepting two passes which were both returned for touchdowns and forcing a fumble at the start of the third quarter.

The Force will look to bounce back next week when they face the Chicago Rush. This will be another tough task for the Force because Chicago comes into the game as the only undefeated team in the AFL. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Gwinnett Arena on Saturday.