Avengers Lose Their Grip on Carolina and Fall, 58-50

After being disappointed by the season-opening loss to Grand Rapids, the Avengers wanted more than redemption Thursday against the Carolina Cobras. There was something to prove.

Both the Avengers and Cobras are in their first Arena Football League season, but Los Angeles sees itself as the more competitive team, having stocked its 24-man roster with 18 veterans while two-thirds of the Carolina roster is comprised of Arena rookies.

But it was the Avengers that made most of the gaffes, the most critical being three lost fumbles that Carolina turned into 21 points, and Los Angeles dropped its second consecutive, 58-50, before 10,718 at Staples Center.

Carolina quarterback Jim Arellanes completed 18 of 34 passes for 231 yards and four touchdowns and ran for another score. Receiver Dexter Dawson caught one of those touchdown passes and ran for another. But a 28-yard touchdown gallop by fullback Marrio Grier that gave Carolina a 52-44 lead with 6:42 to play was too much for the Avengers to overcome.

Avenger quarterback Scott Semptimphelter completed 25 of 39 passes for 331 yards and six touchdowns, the last one to Chris Jackson (six catches, 109 yards) with 28 seconds to play. But Semptimphelter’s pass for a two-point conversion was intercepted by Dawson.

The Avengers had one last chance, but Semptimphelter’s desperation pass on the game’s final play was picked off by Marvin Marshall of Carolina (1-1).

Now the Avengers (0-2) have 10 days before their next game at Staples Center against Oklahoma to decide if they want to be the team they believe they can be.

Coach Stan Brock plans to do more than soul searching.

“I’ll be looking at the roster and maybe make some moves. I’ll look at the coaching and see if we’re covering the right basics,” Brock said.

“Losing is always disappointing. There wasn’t a lack of effort tonight. But you can’t have fumbles like we did. Carolina is good, but a better team would have beaten us by 30 with those turnovers.”

In the Arena league’s previous 13 seasons only four teams--Iowa (1995), Nashville (1997), New Jersey (1997) and San Jose (1995)--finished above .500 in their first seasons. Iowa and Nashville also qualified for the playoffs.

This is the standard the Avengers aspire to, but Semptimphelter said the team must improve.

“You just can’t have turnovers like we had tonight. You just can’t,” he said. “But if we had been able to hold them to field goals instead of touchdowns we’d still win the game.

“You don’t get paid to lose. You get sent home if you lose. But I still think we’re going to be all right.”