Baltimore Brigade Beat Cleveland Gladiators to Earn First Win in Franchise History

History was made today. The Baltimore Brigade have their first win in franchise history, defeating the Cleveland Gladiators 52-49. The crowd of 5,758 was a little smaller than usual due to the Easter holiday. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but once the NBA pairings and TV schedule were set, the Cleveland Cavaliers were required to begin their title defense yesterday afternoon, which meant the Gladiators needed to find a new day to play.

Despite the fact that they outscored the Brigade 35-31 in the second half, a slow start and only fourteen points in the first half put Cleveland in a catch-up situation again this week.  Late in the first quarter Cleveland gained a short-lived 7-7 tie from the effort of rookie quarterback Tanner Marsh in his first action of the season on an 18 yard pass to Collin Taylor. Marsh would throw for a total of 288 yards and four touchdowns, but had a key fumble early in the 4th  after the Brigade had regained the lead at 42-35.

Newly signed Arvell Nelson entered the game at quarterback with the Glads trailing 49-35 with 5:17 remaining in the game and guided Cleveland to touchdowns on his first two drives.  Nelson, who played for Cleveland last season on defense and at quarterbaxk, had been cut during the first week of this year’s training camp.

Nelson’s initial drive resulted in a 12 yard touchdown pass to Quentin Sims to pull Cleveland within seven at 49-42 with 2:43 left.  After holding Baltimore to a field goal on its next possession, Nelson took to the air again and hit Collin Taylor for a 45 yard scoring pass at the :46 mark to make it a 52-49 ball game and the eventual final score.

Nelson’s late-game heroics could make decisions about the quarterback position moving forward a bit challenging for the Gladiators’ coaching staff.

Former OSU Buckeye kicker Drew Basil turned in a positive performance for the Glads hitting 7 out of 7 extra points.

 

Cleveland in the Finals. Get Used to It.

The city known for giving their die-hard sports fans a lot of pain while earning some even more painful nicknames such as, the “factory of sadness” or the “mistake by the lake” Cleveland, OH.

The city that went over 50 years without winning anything, is starting to look pretty strong for sure now. We all know the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from being down 3-1 in the NBA Finals, something that had never been done in Finals history before.

Cleveland’s American Hockey League team, the Cleveland Monsters won their last nine playoff games to take home their own title. The Cleveland Indians may have lost the World Series, but they were able to follow in the Cavaliers’ and Monsters’ footsteps to get into the championship game in their sport. So why not another title run for a city on the rise?

The Cleveland Gladiators have been in a conference championship game in two of the last three seasons (2014 in the American Conference, 2016 National Conference). In 2014, they made it to Arena Bowl XXVII and with most of their talent looking like it will return for next season, how can one not jump on the Cleveland bandwagon?

Collin Taylor is over in the China Arena Football League playing for the undefeated Beijing Lions and has already locked up a spot in the title game, China Bowl I with a game still left in the regular season.

A perfect example of just how important Taylor is to a team is the fact that last week, Taylor caught a touchdown pass for the Lions in the the second quarter giving them the lead, making the score 21-19, the Lions then went on a 49-6 run to finish the game.

Assuming, Taylor returns and joins teammate Quentin Sims, it would surely be a nasty combo going deep. The two totaled up for over 2,500 receiving yards and 59 touchdowns during the regular season.

The man controlling the show after waiting a few games, Glads quarterback Arvell Nelson has firmly set himself in as the clear man in Cleveland after throwing for 3,425 yards and rushing for over 200 yards while being responsible for 81 total touchdowns this regular season.

The Cleveland Gladiators have enough talent and history on their side, they could definitely find themselves playing in Arena Bowl XXX.