Firebirds win in last second (Full Story)
June 5, 1998 - Final 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Totals Albany 0 21 13 18 52 Nashville 14 14 0 21 49 Firebirds win in last second
NASHVILLE - Pete Elezovic kicked a game-winning 33-yard field goal as time expired Friday night, giving the Albany Firebirds a 52-49 triumph over the Nashville Kats.
Elezovic's kick improved the Firebirds' record to 5-1, the team's best start in the history of the franchise. Albany returns to the Pepsi Arena next Saturday night to host the Florida Bobcats.
The Kats, who dropped to 4-2, tied the game with 16 seconds left after Cory Fleming caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Andy Kelly, and Walter Grant added the one-point conversion.
Colonie High product Chad Dukes, who scored three touchdowns and for the second straight week, broke the team single-game rushing record, made his final big play of the evening by returning Grant's ensuing kickoff 34 yards to the Kats' 16-yard line with five seconds left.
Firebird quarterback Mike Pawlawski threw one incomplete pass, and then Elezovic, who had a key extra point blocked earlier in the game, trotted onto the field with one second left to kick the game-winning field goal.
Shut out in the first period on just one possession by the Nashville defense, Albany scored touchdowns the next seven times it had the ball before settling for Elezovic's game-winning field goal.
The Kats scored on the game's first play from scrimmage when Kelly hit Fleming on a 45-yard touchdown, and after stopping the Firebirds, Nashville increased its lead to 14-0 on Kelly's four-yard pass to Lonnie Turner with 3:28 left in the first quarter.
Pawlawski's one-yard sneak capped a nine-play drive that put the Firebirds on the scoreboard with 12:40 left in the second period. Albany made a key defensive stop on Nashville's next series, and when Grant missed a 39-yard field goal, the Firebirds were right back in it.
Moving methodically down the field, the Firebirds capped a seven-play drive on Eddie Brown's one-yard run. Tyrone Jones returned the ensuing kickoff 54 yards for a Nashville touchdown, and when the teams traded scores in the final minute of the second period, the hosts were up at the half, 28-21.
The Firebirds took the third-period kickoff and went 45 yards in nine plays, getting the score when Pawlawski bought some time by scrambling to his right and then throwing a four-yard touchdown to tight end Mark Valvo.
The touchdown tied the game at 28-28, and after another defensive stop, Albany took the lead on Pawlawski's 11-yard touchdown to Brown. This time, Elezovic missed the point after, but Albany was ahead, 34-28.
Kelly led the Kats to a go-ahead score early in the fourth period, but Dukes and the Firebirds would not be denied. Dukes, who rushed for 66 yards last week, had 70 yards in 10 carries Friday night, including two more TDs on great individual efforts.
He scored from 28 yards out at 9:30 of the fourth period, and from three yards out with just under a minute left, reversing his field after apparently being stopped by the Nashville defense at the two. Pawlawski ran over the two-point conversion to give Albany its 49-42 lead with :52 on the clock.
