Gladiators crushed by first-half collapse

Brady Delander

Monday, April 4, 2005 | 9:24 a.m.

DENVER -- The Las Vegas Gladiators are two different teams wearing the same jersey.

And the first-half Gladiators sunk themselves into such a deep pit that not even the explosive offense of the second-half Gladiators could get them back to the surface against Colorado, and both Las Vegas teams were hit with the 61-40 loss on Sunday at the Pepsi Center.

"We are struggling in the first half. We did that last week against San Jose, and you can only come back from that so many times," Las Vegas quarterback Clint Dolezel said. "I wish I could pinpoint it, because if I could I would be somewhere else."

Just where else Dolezel would be was unclear, but that place might not be this season's Arena Football League playoffs. Las Vegas' record now stands at an even 5-5, a half-game behind Los Angeles, one-point overtime losers to Orlando on Sunday, and a game behind San Jose in the AFL Western Division.

The Crush (7-2) owns a two-game lead in the Central Division thanks in large part to the consistent success of offensive specialist Damian Harrell. Harrell, who played collegiately at Florida State, scored four touchdowns on five receptions, and the first score set a new AFL record of touchdown catches in consecutive regular season games (42).

The record fell with 2:08 left in the first quarter, and the 21-yard catch tied the score at 7. It's a tribute to the Gladiators' defense that it took that long for Colorado to score, but the offense didn't uphold its end of the deal.

Defensive specialist Marvin Taylor intercepted quarterback John Dutton twice on Colorado's first two possessions, and Joe Douglass came up with a third pick -- an athletic tip-drill one-hander -- on the possession following Harrell's score. But Las Vegas went into halftime with just seven points.

"The thing about it is, if you get interceptions and you don't score, it's irrelevant," Taylor said. "We have to capitalize on our opportunities, and we didn't do anything with them."

Still, Las Vegas trailed by only seven points until a familiar sequence of events pushed the deficit to 21 points in the first half's final seconds.

Harrell caught his second touchdown with 4 seconds left in the second quarter, and a touchback on the ensuing kickoff gave the Gladiators one last chance.

But Dolezel's pass got knocked around and into the hands of Andy McCullough, who trotted in from 6 yards out.

In the Gladiators' 2004 season opener, Harrell caught two touchdown passes in the game's final 20 seconds for a one-point, comeback victory.

"Today was a bit different because they pulled away early. Last time we were ahead and we just kind of gave it away," said Marcus Nash, who lit up the second half with four touchdown catches.

Nash, a first-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos out of Tennessee in 1998, finished with a game-high nine catches for 126 yards. He also scored on a 1-yard run in the first half.

Dolezel completed 25 of 45 passes for 321 yards and five touchdowns. He also threw three interceptions. Douglass caught seven passes for 84 yards.

For the Crush, Dutton went 21-of-32 for 192 yards and six touchdowns. After throwing only four interceptions all season, he threw three against Las Vegas.

Las Vegas came out inspired in the second half, scoring touchdowns on all but the last of its six possessions and moving to within 13 points of the lead in the fourth quarter. But the Gladiators' three on-side attempts were recovered by Colorado and turned into touchdowns.

"This is a crazy game," Harrell said when asked if he was surprised to find Las Vegas so close despite the Crush's control of the action.

Las Vegas coach Ron James kept his summation short and simple.

"Poor execution in the first half and turnovers," James said were the reasons for the loss. "We had some opportunities ... to put them on the ropes and we weren't able to do it."