Semi Finals (8/14/99): Albany vs Arizona

Firebirds finally get title shot

ALBANY - It all seemed so familiar. So easy.

Mike Pawlawski threw the ball; Eddie Brown caught it. They might as well have been tossing it around in the backyard, with no one else around except the whispering trees.

Pawlawski and Brown played catch in front of 10,000 screaming people at Pepsi Arena on Saturday, and their performance pushed the Albany Firebirds into the first ArenaBowl in the 10-year history of the franchise with a 73-47 thrashing of the Arizona Rattlers in the semifinals.

Pawlawski completed 22 of 32 throws in the game, and Brown caught over half of them, wiping out the league record for receiving yardage in a postseason game with 239 yards on 13 catches.

The 13-3 Firebirds will play the defending champion Orlando Predators, this year's eighth seed, in ArenaBowl XIII at 3 p.m. Saturday at Pepsi Arena.

"It's been a long time coming," Firebirds head coach Mike Dailey said. "The franchise has been here 10 years, and we were close a lot of times and didn't get a chance to play in the big game. Now finally, we get a chance."

"This is what you work and struggle for, it's what you suffer all the bumps and bruises for, and now it's coming to fruition," Pawlawski said. "We have some big-game players in here."

None is bigger than Brown, who still had more work to do after breaking the postseason record of 177 yards set by Larry Ray Willis of New Jersey last year in a first-round upset of the Firebirds. Brown swept past the record in the third quarter and kept right on going, catching three touchdown passes in the second half as the Firebirds ran away from the Rattlers.

Pawlawski connected with Brown as if there were no defenders around, exploiting a rapport that has been built through repetition and communication between the two for the last three years.

The Firebirds led at halftime, 33-21, and got the ball first in the third quarter. Brown went 30 yards with a screen pass for a touchdown, and after Arizona quarterback Sherdrick Bonner - playing in his first game after being cut by the Atlanta Falcons this week, hit Calvin Schexnayder for a score - Pawlawski and Brown did their thing again.

A holding penalty on the kickoff pinned the Firebirds on their two-yard line. Pawlawski faked a screen pass and looked for Greg Hopkins deep, but he was covered, so Pawlawski found Brown underneath. Hopkins came back and hammered the only defender who had a chance to tackle Brown, and he was gone to make it 47-27.

"I always expect to complete every pass that I throw to him," Pawlawski said. "He's that good. He gets open, and he's going to catch the ball. That's just the confidence I have in him. I don't just know what he's thinking, I know why, and that makes it that much easier to know what he's going to do. It's second nature."

"I wanted to do what I could to help us win," Brown said. "If I had to carry the team on my shoulders, I was ready to do that."

"Eddie knows where Mike's going before he makes his break, and he throws the ball there," Arizona head coach Danny White said. "They work so well together that it's really difficult to stop. They're almost thinking for each other. That's not something that you can coach, it's just from working together so long."

"Great players play big in the big games," Dailey said. "He and Mike Pawlawski both did it. They played a lot of man on him, so we ran a lot of formations that would give Eddie opportunities."

The Rattlers scored again, but the Firebirds' offensive machine rolled on. Albany scored on every possession in the game, although the Rattlers came up with two "stops" when the Firebirds kicked field goals.

The Firebirds' defense and special teams did their part to complement the offense. Kyle Moore-Brown and Tim Brown recovered fumbles, and Derek Stingley intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter.

After the Rattlers cut the lead to 16-14 early in the second quarter, Van Johnson returned a kickoff 56 yards for a touchdown, making three cuts to take advantage of blocks.

"I can't even tell you the last time we played a complete game like that," lineman Mark Valvo said. "We were just clicking on all phases. Everybody was just flying around and elevated their game."

"I think we saw what happens when one team plays a perfect game, and the other team gives it away three times," White said. "They ran a kickoff back, we had three turnovers, and offensively . . . phew. I have never played against a team that played that well offensively in this league. I can't think of anything they did that didn't work. We just didn't have any answers."

Despite the biggest victory in the history of the franchise, no one was celebrating too much in the Firebirds locker room.

Albany's 73 points was the second highest for one team in a playoff game in league history, but the Firebirds didn't agree with White's assessment that they had played a perfect game.

"We did get stopped twice, so that might be overstating it a little bit," Pawlawski said. "We played well, but we didn't finish two third downs that we should have. So perfect is a pretty subjective word. I would hope that we'd save a perfect game for next week."

"I dropped a pass before the half, the guys gave me a hard time about it, and I need to go through a game where I don't drop any balls," said Brown, who did not sleep Friday night because he was too wired.

Also, the Firebirds won't be satisfied unless they win the title.

Orlando barely made the playoffs, but the Predators are 5-0 in playoff games over the last two seasons.

"We've got one more game to play, I've got to play a little bit better than what I played tonight, and that's the only thing that's going through my mind right now," Brown said.