Avengers come up a little short

With the game on the line Saturday night, Avengers kicker Remy Hamilton may have had the leg to kick a 46-yard field goal on the final play of the game, but he needed to be good from 47.

With Hamilton’s miss as time ran out, the Avengers blew a royal opportunity to make a run at the Arena Football League’s Western Division title.

Unable to hold a 10-point fourth-quarter lead, the Avengers lost to Tampa Bay, 40-37, in front of 12,439 at Staples Center.

It was the first game of a seven-game stretch in which the Avengers (5-5) play five games at home after playing five of their previous seven on the road.

It was in stark contrast to their last home game, a 75-71 comeback victory over Grand Rapids.

“In the second half, we went dead on offense,” Coach Ed Hodgkiss said. “We dropped balls, [quarterback] Sonny [Cumbie] didn’t have one of his best halves. It was definitely on the offense.

“I’m perplexed why we went so cold. The defense played well. We’re at the point now where we feel we have to win them all. We blew a chance this evening, and now we’ve got a tough Georgia team next week.”

Georgia (9-1) has the league’s best record. Tampa Bay is 4-6. Western Division leader San Jose is 7-3.

The Avengers led at halftime, 23-17, and after three quarters, 30-20. But their only score of the fourth quarter came after recovering an onside kick at the six-yard line. Cumbie passed six yards to Robert Quiroga for a 37-27 lead with 11:26 to play. Cumbie completed 20 of 42 passes for 197 yards and four touchdowns, all to different receivers.

T.T. Toliver caught two touchdown passes from Brett Dietz in the closing minutes, the last with 41 seconds left. Seth Marler missed the point after, so the Avengers could still tie with a field goal. With two seconds remaining, they got their chance, but Hamilton was just under the crossbar from 47 yards. Hamilton also missed from 45 yards earlier in the fourth quarter.

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martin.henderson@latimes.com