Friday, March 18, 2005 | 10:02 a.m.
6 p.m. Saturday, America West Arena TV: FSW (49) Radio: KBAD 920-AM
Last week: Las Vegas won at Columbus, 63-34; Arizona lost at Tampa Bay, 59-56.
Key matchup: Gladiators OS Marcus Nash vs. Arizona secondary. Defending Nash is always key for opponents, but given his success against the Rattlers, it is even more important. In his past two games against Arizona, Nash has 31 receptions for 337 yards and 11 touchdowns. The Rattlers must slow him to stay in the game.
Notes: Former UNLV WR Troy Mason left the practice squad this week to pursue a job in af2, the Arena Football League's farm system. Mason made the practice squad after earning a training camp spot in an open tryout, but wants a chance to play on a regular basis. ... Las Vegas QB Clint Dolezel is likely to reach one career milestone and could make it another Saturday. He needs just two completions to reach 2,500 and 368 passing yards to make it to 30,000. ... This will actually be the second turn as a head coach against Arizona for first-year Gladiators coach Ron James. James led Las Vegas in the absence of Frank Haege last season, while he served a one-game suspension.
Next week: Las Vegas vs. San Jose (Monday); Arizona at Nashville (Monday).
And now, please welcome to the field for the first time this season, the 2005 Las Vegas Gladiators.
Quarterback Clint Dolezel's broken right middle finger is healed. Offensive specialist Marcus Nash is just about past his knee injury. Lineman Steve Konopka can move on his once-strained groin.
So with respect to injured center Joe Burch and cornerback Dameon Porter, the Gladiators will take the field Saturday night at Arizona as close to full strength as they have been since the season opener.
With Dolezel and Nash together and healthy for the first time since the middle of the 2004 campaign, the Gladiators (4-3) face the reeling Rattlers (1-6) with their best chance yet to finally win a game at America West Arena in Phoenix.
"It's definitely been a rough road for us," Dolezel said. "Hopefully, the bad stuff is behind us now."
It looked that way last week at Columbus, where Las Vegas put together its most complete performance of the season to claim a 63-34 victory. It was the first time this year that the Gladiators won by more than nine points.
Dolezel and Nash, who had not played together since the second week of the season, instantly rekindled their chemistry, connecting for five touchdown passes. Dolezel, who missed most of five weeks with the finger injury, felt fortunate to come back against a weaker Columbus team to sharpen himself for the Rattlers.
"I didn't play as good as I could have, but it was definitely a good warm-up game for this week," Dolezel said.
Normally, that would sound like a strange sentiment heading into a game against a team that has lost six straight games. Arizona, though, played much of that stretch without injured standout quarterback Sherdrick Bonner and the Rattlers have been as unlucky as they have been bad.
Bonner is back, but the Rattlers have still lost their past two games by six combined points.
"Just unfortunate," Dolezel said. "There's no reason they couldn't have won their last two games. They're not the Arizona of old without Danny White and a few of their players getting older, but they're just not catching any breaks right now."
After making three consecutive ArenaBowl appearances, Arizona fired longtime head coach Danny White in the offseason and replaced him with Todd Shell. The results thus far have been a disaster, from the awful record to the strange exit of fan favorite and former UNLV star Hunkie Cooper.
After abruptly reneging on plans to retire before the season, Cooper decided to play again, only to see the coaching staff greatly diminish his role before the two sides eventually cut ties. Cooper, the face of the Arizona franchise for the past decade, was one of many players unsure what to make of the coaching change.
"They changed the coaching staff, and it's been just enough change for the veteran players with an entrenched coach and system in Arizona to create a little bit of discord," Gladiators coach Ron James said.
The Rattlers have also faced a brutal schedule through seven weeks. After defeating Grand Rapids to open the season, Arizona faced opponents who currently own a combined record of 27-11. Las Vegas is Arizona's seventh straight opponent with a winning mark.
James said that for a veteran group that includes Bonner and former UNLV receiver Randy Gatewood, losing so consistently is a foreign experience.
"It's been one of those years for them," James said. "And they haven't had that before."
Despite a crushing loss on the last play against Austin two weeks ago, Las Vegas could still emerge from the first half of its season in good shape by winning for the first time in four tries in Phoenix. Though they lost Dolezel for four games, the Gladiators are in position for a 5-3 record and the quarterback said his team is just starting to hit the stride that carried it to five wins in its final six games in 2004.
"We're where we were last year toward the end of the season," Dolezel said.
After playing the latest in their stretch of five out of seven road games, the Gladiators returns home to face San Jose on Monday, Mar. 28 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
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