Avengers Finish With Loss

The Avengers ended their second Arena Football League season with a 60-42 loss to the Oklahoma Wranglers before 9,188 at Oklahoma City’s Myriad Arena.

Both teams finished 5-9 and neither qualified for the playoffs, which begin next week.

“It’s disappointing to not get in the playoffs,” said Coach Robert Lyles, who was 5-6 after replacing Stan Brock three games into the season. “But the team did its best under the circumstances. We played hard, something we did better than we did last year.”

Lyles said the Avengers will spend the off-season getting healthy.

“We also need to get some linemen, and hire a new offensive coordinator,” Lyles said. Former coordinator Terry Karg was fired by Lyles two weeks ago.

Wrangler quarterback Jeff Loots completed 21 of 28 attempts for a career-high 344 yards and threw four touchdowns. But the day belonged to Oklahoma offensive specialist Lamont Cooper, who set league season records for all-purpose yardage (3,459) and kickoff return yardage (1,779), and also caught nine passes for 141 yards and three touchdowns.

The Avengers did their best to keep pace with Oklahoma in the first half, getting 151 passing yards and three touchdown passes by Wally Richardson, a 25-yard interception return by Mel Miller Jr., and a 44-yard field goal by Brian Reaves.

But Cooper, who had 330 all-purpose yards, had a big half for Oklahoma, catching two touchdown passes as well as returning kicks for 62 yards.

In the third quarter, Oklahoma increased its lead to 46-30 on a 20-yard field goal by Chris Sailer and a 25-yard touchdown pass from Loots to Shawn Foreman.

Jim Druckenmiller replaced Richardson at quarterback in the third quarter--the seventh quarterback used by the team this season--and threw incompletions on his first five attempts before a 22-yard scoring pass to Darren Hughes.

But after the kickoff, Cooper caught a 45-yard touchdown pass from Loots to push the lead back to 53-36 as the quarter ended.