Pre-Season: Birds/Red Dogs (Full Story)
April 18, 1998 - Final 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Totals Albany 13 7 7 14 41 New Jersey 21 16 0 12 49 'Birds can't stop Red Dogs
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Albany Firebird's defense opened the preseason in midseason form Friday night.
Good thing for the New Jersey Red Dogs.
The Firebirds, who had a hard time keeping teams from scoring last year, came up with no stops in the first half and lost to New Jersey at the Continental Airlines Arena, 49-41.
The Firebirds' quarterbacks struggled, too, throwing four interceptions, including one by Mike Pawlawski, two by backup Jorge Munoz, and one by third-stringer Jeff Hecklinski.
The running game came up big, though, scoring four of the Firebirds' six touchdowns.
Fullback/Linebacker Chad Dukes showed that he's ready to duplicate or improve on his breakout 1997 season, when he lead the Arena Football League in rushing yardage and rushing touchdowns.
He had a 45 yard TD run in the first quarter, a five yarder in the second quarter, and a sack late in the game.
Albany played without start offensive specialist Eddie Brown, who did not dress in order to rest a sore hamstring.
The closest the Albany defense came to stopping New Jersey in the first half came when the Red Dogs ran out of time at the end of the second quarter and opted to kick a short field goal on third and goal from the one with about 1.1 seconds left.
That gave New Jersey a 37-20 lead at halftime.
After New Jersey scored on the opening possession of the game, Red Dogs defensive specialist Kevin Guy grabbed a pass throw by Pawlawski that popped out of Derek Stingley's hands and ran it in for a score to make it 14-0.
Munoz threw his first interception in the end zone late in the second quarter, setting up the Red Dog's half ending field goal drive.
Pawlawski played the first quarter and the first series of the second quarter, completing five of nine passes for 68 yds with one interception.
New Jersey starting QB Aaron Garcia played the same amount of time, and completed nine of twelve for 78 yards and two TD's.
Besides Dukes, a Colonie High graduate, another former Section II player, Carl Sacco of Albany Academy, had a strong game.
Sacco, a WR/LB, had an interception and pass reception in the second half.
Albany kicker Pete Elezovic had a tough night, missing two extra point after attempts, and leaving most of his kickoffs short of the end zone.
The Firebirds lost promising newcomer John Summerday, a lineman, to an ankle injury in the second quarter.
