Gibson goes for 100th win, Lions for playoff seeding in Mexico
The Columbus Lions leave Saturday night to head south of the border to Monterrey, Mexico, to face the Monterrey Steel on Monday in the team’s penultimate game of the regular season.
While Columbus has clinched a playoff spot and know they will be in the mix with undefeated Jacksonville, one-loss Lehigh Valley, and the Steel, the seeding is still up for grabs.
Both the Lions and Monterrey enter Monday night’s contest with three losses. Columbus sits at 7-3 in the National Arena League standings, while the Steel are 6-3.
The Lions will play a full 12-game schedule as they will close the regular season on Saturday in Albany against the Georgia Firebirds; however, Monterrey will finish the season playing only 11 contests. Their scheduled game at Dayton on Apr. 10 was cancelled earlier in the season as the team folded prior to the beginning of the season. The Wolfpack were replaced for road games by a travel-only team based out of Atlanta; the Lions defeated them 77-0 at home on May 20.
Monday’s game will be a battle for the third seed in the upcoming playoffs. It likely will mean the difference between traveling to top-seeded Jacksonville as the No. 4 seed or second place Lehigh Valley as the runner-up. All three of the Lions’ losses this season have come against Jacksonville and Lehigh Valley but were by narrow margins of 15 (Mar. 17 vs. Jacksonville), six (Apr. 9 at Lehigh Valley), and nine (Apr. 29 at Jacksonville).
Columbus defeated the Steel 48-18 at home on May 6, a game in which the two teams combined for 29 penalties for 231 yards and several ejections on both sides.
Monday’s game is also a huge milestone for Lions head coach Jason Gibson, who is sitting on 99 career indoor football wins. A win Monday in Mexico will make Gibson just the third coach in indoor football history to win 100 or more games with the same team.
“Monterrey is a huge test,” Gibson said after Saturday’s home win against Corpus Christi. “That’s where the rubber meets the road. They’re signing all these AFL players and doing everything they can do to be competitive. They’re disciplined in how they operate. WIth the bad blood from the last game against them, it’s a challenge. I have to figure out how to manage the travel, manage the (Monterrey) crowd, and manage all that stuff to focus on what we’re supposed to do.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2017 at 7:36 PM with the headline "Gibson goes for 100th win, Lions for playoff seeding in Mexico."