Piranhas Still Undefeated Despite a Sluggish Start

For a half, it was hard to tell the undefeated team from the winless team. But the Piranha defense, led by the man-without-a-position, Kevin Carroll, shut out the Memphis Pharaohs in the second half and stayed undefeated in the Arena Football League with a 31-21 victory Saturday in front of 12,177 at the Pond.

The Piranhas (5-0) fumbled and bumbled their way to a 21-17 first-half deficit, but turned the game around early in the third quarter when they stopped Pharaoh quarterback Brad Lebo on a fourth-and-a-foot sneak at the Anaheim three.

“It could have been a tough game if they score there,” Piranha Coach Babe Parilli said.

Memphis (0-5) called a timeout before the play and decided to call on Lebo, a 6-foot-4, 230-pound quarterback from Montana.

“It’s hard to get a half yard in this league,” Parilli said. “They have a big kid, a 225-pounder. That’s a logical call.”

The Piranhas thought logically and were ready for Lebo, stopping him inches short of the first down. From there, the Piranhas took it 47 yards in seven plays and scored on a seven-yard pass from Scooter Molander to William Pollard. Receiver Jai Hill caught three passes for 32 yards on the drive.

Molander continued to go to Hill throughout the second half, connecting with him seven times for 58 yards. Hill, who finished with nine catches for 74 yards, gave the Piranhas a 31-21 lead with 11:18 left with a nine-yard touchdown reception from Molander.

“The defense wasn’t covering my position,” Hill said. “We exploited that in the second half.”

But the Piranhas didn’t exploit much of anything in the first half. Their secondary allowed Lebo to complete seven of 12 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown, and their offense had a hard time moving the ball on one of the league’s worst defenses.

Molander completed only nine of 19 passes for 92 yards and he fumbled a certain touchdown on the goal line early in the second quarter.

Parilli said he wasn’t sure why his team came out so flat against a team that had lost its first four games by an average of 30 points.

“Last year we were 0-4 and we beat a 5-0 badly,” he said. “I told them that all week but I guess it just went in one ear and out the other.”

But Saturday’s slow start was nothing new to the Piranhas, who have trailed during the first half in their first three home games.

Carroll said he has a theory on the Piranhas’ sluggish starts.

“We’re all fired up in the locker room, but we sit around during the [seven-minute] pre-game show and get cold,” Carroll said. “I might have to talk to somebody about that.”

Carroll did plenty of talking with his play Saturday. He had two sacks for 14 yards, forced a fumble and spent most of the night in the Memphis backfield.

Before the game, Carroll was informed he would have to play three defensive positions--nose guard, defensive end and linebacker--in the Piranhas’ defensive scheme.

“I was kind of frustrated about the new position,” said Carroll, who also played fullback. “I decided to take my frustrations out on the Pharaohs.”

The 52 combined points was the lowest total for both teams in their history. The Piranhas’ had been averaging 47 points a game, but thanks to their defense, 22 points would have been enough.

“We’re a second-half team,” Carroll said. “We give the other guys a lead in the first half and then we come back and dominate in the second half. We’re still waiting to put it all together.”