It’s a Day of Positives for Victorious Avengers

You could say the Avengers finally felt at home Sunday, winning their first regular-season game at Staples Center.

But, with their 63-49 Arena Football League victory over Florida, before 8,578, the Avengers were also feeling hopeful about making a playoff push after their second victory in three weeks.

The timing couldn’t be better, with a spot in the playoffs still not out of the question for the Avengers (2-8), who improved to 1-4 at home.

“It’s definitely a goal,” said fullback/linebacker Andy Chilcote, who scored on a pair of touchdown runs, including a score with 33 seconds to play. “It’s certainly motivating a lot of guys. One more paycheck, play football a little longer.”

Defeating the Bobcats (3-6) was critical because Florida is one of the six teams Los Angeles is chasing for the last couple of playoff berths. Twelve of the league’s 17 teams will qualify for postseason play.

“This feels like what Sugar Shane [Mosley] did here last night,” said Avenger receiver Anthony Rice, referring to Mosley’s boxing victory over former welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya on Saturday. “But we gotta keep rolling with that. We can’t go backward. We’ve gotta keep going forward, and we have a good team to do that.

“The worst has already happened. We’re 2-8 right now. But we’re gonna keep getting better.”

Few players are improving as much as quarterback Todd Marinovich. After throwing seven touchdowns against Arizona last week, Marinovich added six more against a Bobcat defense that rarely pressured him. And, for the second consecutive week, Marinovich did not throw an interception.

“For one thing I’m getting the time to throw, which I didn’t have much of before,” said Marinovich, who completed 13 of 22 passes for 200 yards.

“We’re also more confident now. We really think we can make the playoffs. Right now there isn’t a team we don’t think we can’t beat.”

On Sunday the Avengers, who led, 28-24, at halftime on Rice’s 45-yard touchdown reception, got something else besides confidence. In reaching a season high in points they got a couple of key breaks to go their way. Specifically, a couple of muffed Bobcat kicking plays.

In the first quarter, on the Bobcats’ first possession, Avenger lineman Victor Hall blocked kicker Joe O’Donnell’s field-goal attempt out of Florida’s end zone, and Brett Clark recovered the ball for a touchdown. And on another Florida field-goal attempt in the third quarter, a bad snap was recovered by the Avengers at the Bobcats’ 14. Marinovich turned that error into a 14-yard touchdown pass to Rice.

Florida quarterback Jim Arellanes did throw for 280 yards and four touchdowns. But he was only 17 of 41 against the Avengers’ defense, and during one stretch threw eight consecutive incompletions.

On Florida’s first play of the second half, Curtis Ceaser got behind Rice and Arellanes found him for a 46-yard touchdown pass to give the visitors’ their only lead, 31-28.