Soul End Skid, Edge Destroyers for 3rd Win

Philadelphia Soul rookie WR BJ Bunn recorded his first career AFL touchdowns in the team's Week 6 victory over the Columbus Destroyers at the Wells Fargo Center (Matt Rappa/SportsTalkPhilly.com).

By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor

FINAL | Soul 47, Destroyers 35 | Attendance: 8,672 | Boxscore

The Philadelphia Soul (3-3) snapped their three-game skid and returned to the .500 mark, topping the winless Columbus Destroyers (0-6), 47-35, Saturday evening at the Wells Fargo Center. The Soul have now won four straight games against the Destroyers and are 7-4 against the team in 11 overall meetings, with the previous coming in 2008.

The Destroyers entered the game averaging a AFL-worst 30.2 points per game, while the Soul entered with with a league third-best 41.6 points per game. Both teams bested their points per game average on Saturday, while Soul quarterback Dan Raudabaugh's six passing touchdowns came up huge in helping Clint Dolezel to his 80th career win as head coach of the team (80-35).

With the win, the Soul improved to 2-1 at home this season, as well as avoided their first four-game skid since 2011 — which would have been their fifth-ever four-game skid in team history.

Game Summary

The Soul had the ball just once on offense in the first quarter — resulting in Dan Raudabaugh's 15-yard touchdown pass to WR Lonnie Outlaw. The bigger Soul play of the opening quarter, however, was DB James Romain's pick-6 on the Destroyers' opening drive — just four plays after the Soul won the toss and deferred to the winless team.

The pick-six was Romain's third of the season; in fact, all three of his 2019 interceptions have been pick-sixes, with the other two each coming during the Soul's 48-41 season-opener victory over the Atlantic City Blackjacks. Romain's early pix-six against Columbus set the tone for the victory, as it was the first of three turnovers forced by the Soul defense.

Up 13-7 as the second quarter got underway the Soul defense came up large again as Defensive Player of the Game DB Torez Jones came away with an interception in the end zone. The interception was the fourth of Jones' career and the first this season; he had one interception in all of the 2018 campaign. Jones finished with the pick, 8 1/2 tackles and a forced fumble in the win.

The Soul responded to Jones' interception with Raudabaugh's 24-yard touchdown pass to WR Darius Prince, his 10th, to put the team up 19-7 with just under 10 minutes to go in the half. Kicker Kenny Spencer missed his second of three extra point attempts.

Destroyers QB Grant Russell tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to WR Tony Stevens the following drive, with just over 4 minutes to go in the half. The Soul drove down the field and called a timeout, with one second to go, at the Columbus 11 yard line; Spencer missed the field goal attempt, and the Destroyers' DB Varmah Sonie returned the kick 17 yards to the Columbus 15 before he fumbled. WR BJ Bunn recovered and ran to the Columbus 9-yard line before he was tackled to end the play and half.

The Soul entered the half with a 19-14 lead, despite Spencer's two missed extra points and a missed field goal. They had either trailed or were tied entering halftime in 11 straight games, dating back to last June 10, 2018. The Soul trailed after two quarters in eight straight contests prior to snapping the skid on Saturday.

With the Soul's first two possessions in the second half, Raudabaugh threw 20- and 31-yard touchdown passes to WR BJ Bunn, giving the team a 33-14 advantage; the Soul outscored the Destroyers 14-0 in the third quarter. Bunn only had two career receptions entering the game. Replacing the injured Aaron Wascha, Bunn finished with five receptions for 94 yards. In between the possessions, the Destroyers' Grant completed a pass to WR Julian Lowe (1 yard) to the Soul 9-yard line. Jones forced a fumble, which was recovered by WR-turned-LB Darius Reynolds.

A seven-play Destroyers subsequent drive resulted in Grant throwing his second touchdown pass of the game. With the extra-point good, the Destroyers cut their deficit to 12 with 13:39 to go (33-21 Soul).

The Soul responded quickly, as Raudabaugh needed only one play to find Prince in the end zone (32 yard pass) for the second time in the game. Spencer's extra-point kick was good, giving the Soul a 19-point lead with just less than 12 minutes remaining. While the Destroyers answered with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Grant to Stevens, Raudabaugh found OL Keith Newell wide open for the touchdown during the Soul's next possession, putting them on top 47-27 with 5:35 to go; Raudabaugh finished completing 15 of 26 passes for 260 yards and six touchdowns. The reception by Newell, who debuted in 2014, was the just the third of his career; both of his two career touchdowns came this season.

The Destroyers' Grant rushed in an 18-yard touchdown with about two minutes remaining, and converted the two-point attempt to pull within eight. The late effort was not enough to overcome the Soul, however.

Stats

• First Downs: COL 16, PHI 14
  • Rushing: COL 2, PHI 0
  • Passing: COL 13, PHI 14
• Net Yards Rushing: COL 23, PHI12
  • Rush Attempts: COL 5, PHI 5
  • Average Per Rush: COL 4.6, PHI 2.4
  • Rushing Touchdowns: COL 2, PHI 0
• Net Yards Passing: COL 266, PHI 260
  • Comp-Att-Int: COL 19-32-2, PHI 15-26-0
  • Average per attempt: COL 8.3, PHI 10.0
  • Average per completion: COL 14.0, PHI 17.3
• Total Offensive Yards: COL 289, PHI 272
  • Total Offensive Plays: COL 38, PHI 31
  • Average Gain Per Play: COL 7.6, PHI 8.8
• Fumbles (No-Lost): COL 2-2, PHI 0-0
• Penalties (No-Yards): COL 8-34, PHI 2-15
• Kickoffs-Yards: COL 4-219, PHI8-441
  • Average Yards Per Kickoff: COL 54.8, PHI 55.1
  • Touchbacks: COL 2, PHI 2

Scoring Summary:

1st quarter

• PHI, 6-0 (11:38): DB James Romain, 26-yard interception return (Kenny Spencer kick no good)
• COL, 7-6 (8:40): DE Nick Seither, 1-yard rush (Craig Peterson kick good)
• PHI, 13-7 (2:34): QB Dan Raudabaugh to WR Lonnie Outlaw, 15 yards (Kenny Spencer kick good)

2nd quarter

• PHI, 19-7 (9:56): QB Dan Raudabaugh to WR Darius Prince, 24 yards (Kenny Spencer kick no good)
• COL, 14-19 (4:09): QB Russell Grant to WR Tony Stevens, 9 yards (Craig Peterson kick good)

3rd quarter

• PHI, 26-14: (7:35): QB Dan Raudabaugh to WR BJ Bunn, 20 yards (Kenny Spencer kick good)
• PHI, 33-15 (4:28): QB Dan Raudabaugh to WR BJ Bunn, 31 yards (Kenny Spencer kick good)

4th quarter

• COL, 21-33 (13:39): QB Grant Russell to WR Paul Browning, 1 yard (Craig Peterson kick good)
• PHI, 40-21 (12:35): QB Dan Raudabaugh to WR Darius Prince, 32 yards (Kenny Spencer kick good)
• COL, 27-40 (9:37): QB Grant Russell to WR Tony Stevens, 11 yards (Grant Russell 2-point conversion pass no good)
• PHI, 47-27 (6:29): QB Dan Raudabaugh to OL Keith Newell, 6 yards (Kenny Spencer kick good)
• COL, 35-47 (2:03): QB Grant Russell, 18-yard rush (Grant Russell 2-point conversion pass good)

What's Next:

• Sunday, June 9, 2019: vs. Washington Valor (3-3), 4 p.m.
  • TV: NBCSP+, ESPN3; Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic

The Soul will host the second game of their season-long three-game homestand next Sunday; they will look avenge their Week 4 road loss to Washington (46-53).