Ross emerges to ease sting of injury to Nash

Patrick Gordon

Monday, April 18, 2005 | 9:26 a.m.

PHILADELPHIA -- When a player the magnitude of Marcus Nash goes down, everyone else has to elevate their game to make up for it.

Las Vegas Gladiators quarterback Clint Dolezel made sure of that Sunday, spreading the ball around to several different receivers and throwing a touchdown pass with one second left on the clock to keep his team's playoff hopes alive with a 56-49 victory against the Philadelphia Soul before a crowd of 16,514 at the Wachovia Center.

"We felt like we were playing good defense at the end of the first half," Gladiators coach Ron James said. "And we went into halftime knowing Marcus Nash was limited to playing much, and so with him out we knew we had to move the ball to other receivers to help ourselves out."

Nash, who entered the game with nearly twice as many catches and almost three times the yardage and touchdowns of the Gladiators' second-leading receivers in those categories, suffered a pulled hamstring in the second quarter.

Dolezel, who completed 28 of 43 attempts for 341 yards and eight touchdowns, found Joe Douglass for two touchdowns, including the 27-yard game-winner capping a 14-second drive after Philadelphia (5-7) had tied the score at 49.

Dolezel also connected with Marlion Jackson and T.J. Hill for scores.

But with Nash out, it was Ricky Ross who became Dolezel's prime target.

"He was instant offense for us," James said of Ross, who finished with 92 yards and three scores. "He really gave us the spark we needed, especially after a pair of losses earlier in the season where we really felt like our team was flat. We felt like we needed to insert some life and he really has been the perfect fit for that."

Ross gave the Gladiators a 28-27 lead early in the third quarter on a 7-yard TD catch, bringing the team back from what had been an early 21-7 deficit.

The playoff picture is far from clear, but James is confident in the Gladiators chances at clinching a berth.

"Well, at 7-5 we are in the playoff hunt," he said. "I mean, at this point, Los Angeles lost today so they have five losses as well, but we hold the tiebreaker and so if the playoffs started today, we would be in. So we just need to maintain our position and look to improve over the last four weeks.

"We make sure that we work hard through every minute of the football game. Today we just didn't play well in the first half and got out of the gate slowly, but we rebounded and showed our real selves in the second half."

For the Soul, All-Arena quarterback Tony Graziani completed 17 of 31 pass attempts for 214 yards and three touchdowns, and Chris Brown led the receiving corps with four receptions for 59 yards and a touchdown.

"We had a solid lead in the first half but we just didn't take care of business," said Soul head coach James Fuller. "We kind of laid back and had a bunch of dropped balls and this is what happens when you play a team like Las Vegas."

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