Avengers’ Victory Tops Off a Good Day

Casey Wasserman liked what he saw before his Avengers played the Las Vegas Gladiators in their Arena Football League opener Sunday -- a sizable crowd filing into Staples Center.

“I’m almost as nervous about the attendance as I am the final score,” he said.

The team’s 28-year-old owner needn’t have worried about either.

Playing before an enthusiastic crowd of 14,827, a regular-season record for the four-year-old franchise, the Avengers defeated the Gladiators, 60-48.

Finally, there is a Staples Center tenant with a winning record.

Quarterback Tony Graziani and offensive specialist Chris Jackson -- the only positions on the eight-man unit that are exclusively offensive -- led the Avengers, whose previous best regular-season crowd was 14,427.

Graziani completed 18 of 23 passes for 288 yards and seven touchdowns. Jackson caught nine passes for 164 yards and five touchdowns.

Greg Hopkins, the AFL’s “Ironman of the Year” last season, picked up where he left off. He caught four passes for 44 yards and had a key interception late in the game.

Good games were expected from standouts Graziani, Jackson and Hopkins.

Pleasant surprises were rookie defensive specialists Damen Wheeler and Wasswa Serwanga, each of whom had an interception.

Serwanga’s came on the second to last play of the game, with 19 seconds remaining. It sealed the Avengers’ victory.

Had the Gladiators scored on the play, they would have had time to try an onside kick and, if successful, run another play. In the AFL, one play can be enough.

Even though the crowd began filing out after Jackson’s fifth touchdown catch gave the Avengers a 54-41 lead with most of the fourth quarter left to play, the game was hardly over.

In fact, had the Gladiators not been offside on what would have been a successful onside kick with 53 seconds left, they might have won the game.

The Gladiators had closed to within 54-48. But the penalty gave the Avengers the ball on the Las Vegas six-yard line, and Graziani scored from the three on a run up the middle two plays later.

Serwanga’s clinching interception came with Las Vegas facing fourth down on the Avenger 24.

Serwanga, who played for UCLA in 1996-97 and spent three seasons in the NFL, led the Avengers with eight solo tackles. Wheeler, a three-time All-Big 12 performer at Colorado, had five solo tackles and was in on three others.

Of his rookie defensive specialists, Coach Ed Hodgkiss said, “We’re pleased with both of them. Wheeler’s under the most pressure because he’s in the middle, and he really did a good job. He still has to show some growth as to learning the game, but he did what we asked and was very physical.”

Graziani said he was generally pleased, although he would have liked to have put the game away earlier. The Avengers had an opportunity to do just that after Hopkins’ fourth-quarter interception, but they failed to score.

“That was kind of disappointing,” Graziani said. “We should have put it away there.”