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| Cleveland QB Lon Musso confers with coach jabillups85 |
The Cleveland Thunderbolts will host the Memphis Showboats in the American Conference championship Saturday, while the New Jersey Generals host the Pittsburgh Maulers in the National Conference title game.
The most exciting divisional round game came in Cleveland, where backup QB Lon Musso fired a 36-yard TD pass to Brent Reichman with 1 minute remaining, giving the Thunderbolts a 27-20 win over the Detroit Wheels. Injury-riddled Detroit was penalized for defensive overuse on the decisive score.
Musso had come in to relieve starting QB Chester Dougherty, who was having a miserable game (57.00 QBR). His Detroit counterpart, Mario Valencia, was nearly as bad (51.12, four interceptions).
Two plays after Musso's game-winner, Valencia was intercepted by Cleveland's Monte Cherry and the game was over.
Detroit had won World Bowl III and World Bowl IV before turning the crown over to the Los Angeles Express last season.
In other divisional round games:
Memphis Showboats 41, Oklahoma Outlaws 20: The Memphis defense shut down Oklahoma QB Dale Brown and the Showboats scored the last 21 points to end an eight-game losing streak to the Outlaws. Brown was sacked seven times and intercepted twice and head coach Big Poppa resigned following the loss by the No. 1 seed. Memphis was clinging to a 27-20 lead with 2:27 to play when Marcus Jordan ran 3 yards for the clincher. Donn Webb intercepted Brown on the next play, setting up another 3-yard TD run by Jordan. SS Marshall Forbes recorded 10 tackles for the Showboats.
New Jersey Generals 17, New York Stars 3: The Generals won their 11th in a row and avenged two regular-season losses to their crosstown rivals. The New Jersey defense recorded nine sacks, shut out New York on third-down situations (0-for-16) and allowed only 218 total yards. MLB Bobby Leopold had nine tackles and three sacks for the Generals.
Pittsburgh Maulers 13, Tampa Bay Bandits 10: In last year's playoffs, Tampa Bay won, 66-52. In this year's playoffs, the Bandits finished with just 191 yards total offense. The Maulers held on to the ball for 38:09 and only two of Tampa Bay's 12 drives netted more than 25 yards. Pittsburgh ran out the final 2:05, thanks to an offsides penalty against the Bandits on fourth-and-4. The Maulers scored their only TD on Scott Deal's 5-yard pass to Vito Moffat in the first quarter.
Conference Championship Preview
Memphis Showboats at Cleveland Thunderbolts: Cleveland is 3-1 all-time against Memphis, including a 31-10 victory in Week 10 this season. Cleveland's Chester Dougherty fired four TD passes in that game, while Memphis QB James Perry was sacked six times and intercepted twice. The only player out with an injury is 'Bolts backup RB Alan Benefield.Pittsburgh Maulers at New Jersey Generals: Pittsburgh leads the series, 3-1, but New Jersey claimed a 13-10 victory in Week 5 this season. Maulers QB Michael White was sacked four times and picked off three times in that game, his last week as a starter before Scott Deal took over. Rookie RB Rudi Johnson rushed for 109 yards and a TD for the Generals. Maulers WR Javier Rudolph, C Andre Adkins and LDE Nathaniel Miles are all unlikely to play. LDE James Lockette and WLB Jim LeClair are questionable for New Jersey.
