Avengers Shake Rattlers and Roll

The Avengers were looking to be a little less consistent Saturday to get away from the same old thing.

“I look at our schedule and we’ve gone W, L, W, L, W, L,” receiver Greg Hopkins said last week. “We need to get away from that.”

The Avengers labored to get there, but they broke from recent tradition with a 59-56 victory over Arizona in front of an announced 11,741 at Staples Center.

John Kaleo tossed a 16-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Ingram with four seconds left and the Avengers gave a collective sigh of relief.

It gave them back-to-back victories for the first time since the third week of the season and left them tied for first place with San Jose in the Western Division. More importantly, when Ingram bulled through two Arizona defenders at the goal line, all thoughts of having blown an 18-point lead in the third quarter were wiped clean.

The Avengers (8-5) seemed in control, leading 38-20 in the third quarter. What followed was another playground moment, all too prevalent in Arena football, as the Rattlers scored 16 points in a span of 2 minutes 40 seconds.What appeared to be a rout suddenly became a game.

Quarterback Sherdrick Bonner tossed two touchdown passes sandwiched around a safety.

The Rattlers had life, trailing, 38-36, going into the fourth quarter.

The lead changed hands three times before Kaleo threw his sixth touchdown pass.

It was the second time that Kaleo and Ingram connected on a touchdown in the final 30 seconds to beat the Rattlers (4-9). The two connected with 24 seconds left in a 33-29 victory in the season’s sixth week.

Avenger receiver Tony Locke caught four touchdown passes. Lineman Silas Demary had two sacks, with one forcing a fumble and the other coming on a fourth-down play. Both sacks led to Avenger touchdowns.

In other Arena games:

Tampa Bay 47, New Orleans 36 -- Shane Stafford threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more scores to help the Storm (8-5) improve to 7-0 at home with a victory over the VooDoo (8-5).

Philadelphia 64, Orlando 60 -- Former Avenger Tony Graziani threw seven touchdown passes -- four to Marcus Knight -- to lead the host Soul past the Predators (9-5). Graziani was 27 of 38 for 337 yards as Philadelphia improved to 6-8. Orlando has lost five of six games.

Grand Rapids 58, Colorado 52 -- Michael Bishop threw five touchdown passes and ran for two more scores as the Rampage (2-11) ended an eight-game losing streak with a victory over the Crush (8-5) at Grand Rapids, Mich.

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Associated Press contributed to this report.