Columbus Lions host Florida Tarpons with berth in AIF title game on the line
When the Columbus Lions and Florida Tarpons met in the regular season back on April 23, a 68-54 Lions victory, the Lions tabbed the game “Showdown Saturday.”
Therefore, call the Lions’ AIF playoff semifinal game against Florida on Saturday night at 7 in the Columbus Civic Center “Showdown Saturday, Part 2.”
However, the stakes are much higher this time around.
The undefeated Lions (9-0) will square off against the Tarpons (8-1), whose only loss came in that game in Columbus seven weeks ago, for the chance to advance to the AIF championship game next week.
“We were lucky to hold them to 54 points. We’ll be lucky to do that again,” Lions coach Jason Gibson said.
While the Tarpons cruised to a 71-20 opening-round victory over Savannah last weekend, Columbus is coming off a hard-fought first-round playoff win, a narrow 49-37 victory over the New Mexico Stars. They set season lows for scoring and margin of victory in a game where they trailed at halftime for the first time all season.
Gibson says come playoff time, however, the score is irrelevant as long as the Lions have the bigger number.
“As long as you get the win, it doesn’t matter,” Gibson said. “It’s all about defense. Championship games, conference (championship) games, are always won on good defense. This one will be no different.”
The keys to the game, according to Gibson and Lions quarterback Casey Kacz, are to avoid turnovers and stay on schedule; that is, prevent long yardage situations on third and fourth down.
“Can’t turn the ball over. That was the major factor (in the last game against Florida),” Gibson said. “They turned the ball over twice, and that was the difference in the game.”
“One thing we want to do different is we had a couple of possessions where we backed ourselves into third-and-long,” Kacz said. “Ideally, we want to be in second-and-short. If you can stay out of those situations in an indoor game, that makes it go a lot easier on offense. We’d like to get at least five yards every first down, go from there, and have manageable second and third downs.”
The game will be a duel between arguably the AIF’s two best quarterbacks in Kacz and veteran Tarpons quarterback Chris Wallace, still playing at a high level at age 40, although he announced his retirement after this season. In the game against Florida, Kacz finished 22-of-34 passing for 274 yards and seven touchdowns, while Wallace was 16-of-31 for 284 yards and seven scores as well.
“I like having a little bit of pressure on us to score,” Kacz said. “When you have an opponent not as good as Florida, people get a little lazy with possessions, but when you play a quarterback like (Wallace) who can score at any time, you have to be on your game. You really have to elevate your own game.”
“(Florida’s offense) rides on (Wallace), and our offense kind of rides on Casey,” Gibson said.
Kacz has also had the tutelage of veteran backup quarterback Cecil Lester over the past two weeks. Signed as an “insurance policy” for the playoff run in the words of Gibson, Lester has two indoor football championships on his resume under center for the Albany Panthers, in 2011 in the SIFL and 2012 in the PIFL. He was also the SIFL Most Valuable Player in 2010.
“(Lester’s) been great in practice and in the locker room,” Kacz said. “The last game we played, he was in my ear the whole halftime, saying what he saw and what we could do to beat it. That’s invaluable to have a guy like that almost like a player-coach who knows how to relate to players; he’s young enough to still play, but old enough to where he knows a lot about the game.
“Everything he’s told me isn’t football-related. He’s told me about being a leader and a good teammate. Any advice I can get from a guy like that, I’m going to listen. I take it all in, and I appreciate him sharing all his knowledge with me.”
“There’s three good quarterbacks in this league. All three of them will be here Saturday night: Casey, Cecil, and Chris,” Gibson said.
The Lions are expecting a big crowd at the Civic Center, with only a few seats remaining in the lower level as of Friday evening.
“The crowd is a big factor. Usually, a home crowd in an indoor football game is a 14-point advantage, and we won the last game (against Florida) by 14 points,” Gibson said.
“The fans sometimes don’t understand how big of a part they play, but I think they do in Columbus,” Kacz said. “To have fans that get so loud in certain situations, we’re very grateful for that as players.”
The winner of Saturday’s game will face the winner of Lehigh Valley and West Michigan for the AIF championship. With a win Saturday, Columbus will host the championship game on June 18 at 7 p.m.
“(Florida’s) a good team, good quarterback, good staff, good players,” Gibson said. “It’s going to be a really, really good game. I’m excited for the fans, I’m excited for the players. If you don’t like games like this, then you’re not a competitor.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Columbus Lions host Florida Tarpons with berth in AIF title game on the line."