Soul Continue Season Opening Road Stretch In San Jose
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A rugged opening stretch of the schedule continues for the Philadelphia Soul on Sunday as they visit San Jose.
The Soul kicked off the season last weekend with a 62-55 overtime loss to two-time defending Arena Bowl champion Arizona.
"We weren't smart at the end there," Soul head coach Clint Dolezel tells KYW Newsradio. "We weren't suppose to score that early (at the end of regulation), we scored with 23 seconds (left), we were trying to take that all the way down to four seconds like we did in the first half. Didn't execute, that's on us and therefore they made some plays late to win the football game. Good learning game for us. Obviously we'd like to learn with a win, but we didn't."
The game against the Rattlers was played in Arizona, Sunday's game is in San Jose, then after a bye week, Philadelphia plays two more road games. Their home opener isn't until April 19th. Dolezel says it is a challenging way to start a season.
Clint Dolezel Interview
"Especially when you've got a lot of new players," Dolezel says. "We've got 11 new guys on the team this year, so were having to kind of teach as we go. 8 of those are rookies, who have never played before. It's tough, but we don't mind playing on the road, it's part of the game. We know if we can win a few of these games on the road early, then we've got a lot at home late."
San Jose picked up a 64-34 win over Portland in their season opener this past Monday.
"San Jose, to me they are one of the top four teams always," Dolezel says. "They've got great ownership and great coaching that's been around forever, so they are always going to be tough. They've got one of the best safeties in the league in Clevan Thomas. He was already inducted into the Hall of Fame, they thought he retired, but that's how good he is. Pass rush is always solid against San Jose and they've got a good veteran core of receivers and a quarterback. So you know you're going in for a battle when you play San Jose."
The Soul and Sabercats will kick-off at 5:00pm on Sunday.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
