By Joe Pietaro, New York Predators Staff Writer

Brooklyn,N.Y. - Quarterback Lou Scala threw four touchdown passes against the Brooklyn Blue Devils, propelling the New York Predators to their fourth consecutive win, 30-12. With the victory, the Predators assured themselves of a post-season berth in the NAFL playoffs and finished the regular season with a 6-4 record.

The Blue Devils drew first blood with a 12-play drive to open the game. Gadget plays caught the Preds defense off balance, and the Blue Devils used a flea flicker, reverse and misdirection runs to score the opening touchdown. New York went out in front on their first possession by driving the ball right down the field in three plays. Scala (10 for 15, 159 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception, 8 yards rushing) hooked up with WR Bruce Dudley on two passes, a 32 and 17-yarder for a touchdown. In between, there was an 11-yard run by Daquan Williams (7 rushes for 73 yards). Predators led by a score of 8-6 after Williams ran it in for a two-point conversion.

The Predators recovered a fumbled snap and took advantage of the turnover. An eight-play drive was highlighted by runs of 16, 6, and 14 yards by Williams. A screen pass to RB Tim Kelson went for 30 yards, which set up a six-yard scoring pass from Scala to Dudley (6 catches for 78 yards, 2 touchdowns). Kelson then added two more points by running in the conversion for a 16-6 lead, which was the score at halftime.

The Preds picked up where they left off in the second half. Receiving the third quarter kick-off, Kelson put them in good position with a 35-yard return. A 13-yard run by Williams put the ball at the Brooklyn one-yard line. A quick pass from Scala to WR Brian Burrell (failed conversion) widened the Predators’ lead to 22-6.

The Blue Devils caught a break when the Predators were penalized for roughing the kicker following a three-and-out series and a punt. Taking advantage, Brooklyn scored on the next play with a 25-yard touchdown pass. The score read 22-12 after a failed run on a conversion attempt.

In the fourth quarter, the Preds went on a long scoring drive after being back up inside their own ten-yard line. After mixing up the run and pass, WR Harrison Tindall caught a 29-yard pass from Scala, which put the ball in the red zone. On the next play, Scala looked to Tindall once again, who made a diving catch in the end zone. Kelson then ran the ball in for a two-point conversion, making the score 30-12.

The Predators shut down the Blue Devils for the remainder of the contest with a tough defense. FS Godfrey Zuleuta (5 tackles, 2 passes defended, 1 interception), DT Antwan Hill (7 tackles, 1 fumble recovered), and MLB Sharif Wiltshire (9 tackles, 1 sack, 1 pass defended) all were paramount in the win.

The Predators have a bye week prior to suiting up for the first round of the playoffs.

Antwan Hill gets ready for one of his two sacks of the night

By Joe Pietaro, New York Predators Staff Writer

Brooklyn, NY- In NAFL action on Saturday September 16^th, the New York Predators doubled up on the first-place NYC Falcons at Linden Field, 26-13. It was the third win in a row for the resurgent Predators, who improved their record to 5-4. The Falcons fell to 6-2 and split the two games with the Predators.

The Falcons opened the scoring after recovering a Predator fumble. They moved the ball on offense and went up 7-0 after a touchdown pass and an extra point. The Preds next drive stalled and punter Bruce Dudley pinned the Falcons inside their 15-yard line. DT Anthony forced a fumble, which was recovered by Alex Vygon at the 10. RB Daquan Williams (8 rushes for 85 yards, 3 touchdowns) scored the first of his three touchdowns, which was followed up by a two-point conversion pass from QB Lou Scala (15 of 23 for 178 yards, 1 touchdown) to WR Billy Simo.

The remainder of the first half remained scoreless and the Predators headed into the break up 8-7. Receiving the second-half kickoff, the Predators went on a 14-play drive that was culminated with a 5-yard scoring run by Williams. Highlights from the drive were 17 and 10-yard runs by FB Nick Vitagliano (9 rushes for 52 yards). The Preds led 14-7 after missing the extra point.

Williams lit it up again in the third quarter with a 50-yard touchdown run. After missing the extra point, the Predators led 20-7. In the fourth quarter, a 46-yard punt return by RB Timmie Kelson was nullified by a penalty, which backed the Preds up inside their own 10-yard line. Scala led the team right down the field with five, six and nine-yard passes to WR Bruce Dudley and a 44-yard completion to WR Harrison Tindall. Scala then found Dudley open for a 28-yard touchdown pass. The extra point failed.

The Falcons cut the lead to 26-13 with four minutes left in the game and regained possession after the Predators were unable to run out the clock. DL Antwain Hill finished the game with his second sack to put the exclamation point on the victory.

The Predators finish up their regular season schedule on the road at Tilden High School on Saturday, September 24^th at 2 p.m. against the 2-6 Brooklyn Blue Devils.

CB Assante keys 52-24 pounding of Empire State on Staten Island

Staten Island , NY- CB Keith Assante had a field day on Saturday, August 26^th. The first year member of the New York Predators had a 104-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter to go along with two fumble recoveries and four tackles to propel a home 52-24 victory over the Empire State Wolfpack in front of 200 fans at Monsignor Farrell High School . With the win, the Predators improved their record to 3-4, maintaining second place in the Metro South Division of the NAFL.

The theme of the contest was set when Assante recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff. He recovered his second fumble of the game when the Wolfpack turned the ball over again on a fumbled punt, which Assante recovered at the Empire State 1-yard line. Fullback Nick Vitagliano (5 runs for 41 yards, 1 touchdown) punched it in for the score, which was followed up by a two-point conversion pass from quarterback Lou Scala (5 for 15, 111 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 4 two-point conversion passes, 2 runs for 26 yards) to wide receiver Harrison Tindall to give New York an 8-0 lead.

Another turnover set up the Predators for their next score. Sharif Wiltshire (10 tackles, 1 forced fumble) stripped the ball, which was recovered by Jayson Ducrepin. Bruce Dudley corralled in a 40-yard pass from Scala to give the Predators a 14-0 lead (2-point conversion failed).

The second quarter stayed in the home squad’s favor when Assante picked off a pass in the end zone and took it to the house for a 104-yard touchdown return. The 2-point conversion was made when Scala found Tindall open once again, opening the lead to 22-0. The Wolfpack finally got on the board with a 12-yard touchdown pass and a 2-point conversion. The ‘Pack tacked on another score before halftime when they returned a fumble during a punt 45 yards followed by a 2-point run, to cut the deficit to 22-16 heading into the locker room.

The Predators put the ball on the ground at mid-field on their opening drive of the second half, which the Wolfpack were able to convert into a drive to take a 24-22 lead. Heading into the final stanza, the Predators needed to regroup after having 24 consecutive points scored against them.

Scala brought his team down the field and finished off a scoring drive by finding Dudley (3 receptions for 61 yards, 2 touchdowns) for a 15-yard pass. The Preds then went up 30-24 when Scala passed to Bill Simo for the 2-point conversion. Turnovers kept stopping the Wolfpack when Dom Carim intercepted an Empire State pass and ran it back to the 15-yard line. Timmy Kelson (8 for 76 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 reception for 8 yards) then ran it in from there for the touchdown, which was followed by a converted 2-point run by Daquan Williams (9 for 48 yards, 2-point conversion), which gave the Preds a 38-24 advantage.

Scala kept the offense hot with a 32-yard TD pass to Tindall, which gave them a 44-24 lead (2-point conversion failed). The final score of the game came appropriately enough on another turnover, when Benny Rodriguez returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown. After converting a 2-point pass, the Preds blew the game open with a 52-24 lead.

Assante was named as one of the Players of the Week in Minor League Football News for his effort in the win.

The Predators look to even their record when they face the Long Island Eagles at Monsignor Farrell High School at 8:45 pm on Friday night, September 8^th.

-Joe Pietaro

New York Predators Staff Writer

Tuesday, 11/15/2005 7:26PM

Star is Rising 
At the Disney events Ron Jenerette was offered an AFL2 contract by the Everett Hawks. 
 
In addition Several Predators  contributed to the Easts win and combine workouts

Steve Andriola kicked a 44-yd FG.

The Predators are proud to announce the 2006 staff. The coaching staff is the largest staff ever assembled for the Predators. The staff has extensive experience at all levels of football and will help the Predators become a dominant force for years to come.

THERE is no scoreboard. No bench. No yard markers. In truth, there is not even enough grass. Veterans Park, which sits hard by the Arthur Kill on the edge of this largely blue-collar town, is home to the New Jersey Terminators.

Not surprisingly, the Terminators - one of the state's four semiprofessional football teams - usually gets by with less, and sometimes with nothing at all. There are two small grandstands between the two fields at Veterans Park, and one faces an adjoining field used mostly for soccer. Family and friends park lawn chairs at the corners of the field to watch the Terminators. Touchdowns receive sparse cheers.

Jim Cummins for The New York Times

Anthony Jennings, a 36-year-old offensive guard with the New Jersey Terminators, is a sheet-metal worker during the week.

Twinkling lights from the bridges to Staten Island and from the Port of Elizabeth frame the field. Every now and then, a jet plane taking off from nearby Newark Liberty International Airport thunders overhead, and a tugboat whisks past on the Arthur Kill.

As dusk gathered on a recent Saturday and the field's lights pierced the murky night, it seemed as if the rest of the world had more important things to do. Giants Stadium, 20 miles to the northeast, might as well have been light-years away.

But most of the Terminators, many in their 20's and 30's, are not playing for the acclaim or even for the money because semipro players, contrary to the term, are not paid - as is usually the case in this corner of the football world. Still, they continue to play because they love football.

The true weekend warriors are right here.

"My wife doesn't like it when I play, but she gets over it," said Ray Giacobbe, a 26-year-old linebacker from Rahway who builds homes for a living.

New Jersey, home to two professional football teams, is a hotbed of the semipro game. The Terminators are one of four teams from the state in the 114-team North American Football League, the top tier of semipro ball. The Trenton Raiders, Camden Lynx and New Jersey Longhorns are the others.

The Irvington Knights and Mid-State Marauders play in the 15-team United Football League. And the New Jersey Wolves and Jersey Cynder are in the 12-team Garden State Football League, which is actually based in Staten Island.

Although the Terminators are in their first season in the N.A.F.L., the team is 7-1. They probably will make the league's 64-team playoffs, and could even end up playing for the league title in Orlando, Fla., in November.

The N.A.F.L. aspires to be a feeder system, though only a few Terminators play because they think can play professionally. The National Football League is a long shot, but the Arena League or Canadian Football League are better possibilities.

These days, the best player on the Terminators is probably Windale Bates, a 29-year-old lineman from Plainfield who by day is a production manager for Wrigley's Gum - and who still is the all-time leader in quarterback sacks at Kean University in Union.

"I need a shot," said Bates, who said he had brief tryouts with the Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. "I need an agent, and I need a shot. I'm keeping sharp. That's why I'm doing this."

Most just like to play ball. Anthony Jennings is a 36-year-old offensive guard who wears No. 77 for the Terminators. He lives in Elizabeth, is married with two children, and has been a sheet-metal worker since he graduated from Elizabeth High School.

Knowing When to Quit

Jennings has been a Terminator for four years and plans to play until either his 40th birthday or until he thinks he is not helping his team. This season Jennings has shoved aside enough defensive tackles to know he is still productive. And so he plays on.

"I went years without knowing about semipro football until my buddy told me about it," he said as he stood on the sideline. "I wish I would have known sooner."

The Terminators would seem to be typical of most semipro teams: they were formed by three longtime friends from the scraps of other defunct semipro teams.

In 2000, Ed Gladney, who is in sales for Verizon; Ronnie Paige, a corrections officer at the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center; and Kenneth LaDuna, a football coach at Rahway High School, met and came away with the sense that they could put together a competitive team.

First, they had to find people who wanted to play football badly enough to pay to play. A ticket to a game is $5, but most of the team's costs - including uniforms, travel expenses and game officials - are covered by a $180 fee for each player (the annual cost is waived for players who sell 10 season tickets at $20 each).

Gladney said that the Terminators are looking for companies to help defray the costs of running the team.

When the three men first got together, the idea was to go slowly, but to find enough talented and hungry players. They signed up 55 the first season.

"When we first started out, we didn't want to get into a league that was too competitive," said Paige, the team's general manager.

In 2002, the Terminators joined the Northeast Football Association and won the championship. Then in 2003 they joined the Millennium League - a rung higher on the ladder - and won another championship. They moved to the U.F.L. - the next step - in 2004 and advanced to the semifinals.

The N.A.F.L. soon beckoned. Rob Licopoli, the league president and a former wide receiver at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, started the N.A.F.L. in 1999, envisioning a league that could be the equivalent of the minor leagues in baseball and hockey.

"Any of these guys could be a poster child for success," Licopoli said of the three men who run the Terminators. "If any one of them would get into running a business, they'd be bringing in $1 million or $2 million a year."

For now, that is not the case. "Believe me," Gladney said with a laugh, "I'm not making any money out of this."

A Winning Tradition

Still, the three men have built an organization that they believe has a foundation and has established something of a tradition. In four seasons, the Terminators have lost only a handful of games, and players flock to teams that win. If nothing else, it makes playing for no pay easier.

Giacobbe, a linebacker, said that a year ago he was going to give up the game, but he returned this year -even as his wife is expecting their second child. He played at Rahway High, and many of his teammates are longtime friends.

"It is getting harder and harder to wake up for work Monday mornings, even though we play on Saturday nights," Giacobbe said.

A few minutes later, after he had helped the Terminators force the New York Predators to punt, Giacobbe returned to the sideline, rubbing his temples. He asked a fan, "You don't have any Tylenols?"

The game has an odd cacophony. To try to create more noise, the Terminators pipe rap music over two speakers for the entire game. Sometimes, an ice cream truck passes by, softening the hard rap with the merry tinkle of children's music.

The action in a semipro game lacks many of the frills found in the highly lucrative N.F.L. Semipro ball is blunter and simpler. Most of the yardage is hammered out on the ground, usually in the pits of soft, mocha-colored dirt in the middle of the field.

"It's like a college football game with a little bit of an N.F.L. game thrown in, and it's a cheap seat if you can't go to an N.F.L. game," said Charles McGill, 47, a Newark resident who is the commissioner of the N.A.F.L.'s 33-team Eastern Conference.

Yet it is love of the game - not a multimillion-dollar salary or a scholarship - that draws players to the hardscrabble world of semipro football.

The Terminators star running back is Darrell Glover, 27, who lives in Elizabeth and works for a security company. He achieved some acclaim at Elizabeth High School but did not pursue a college career because he became a father first.

These days Glover has four children, and he considers football a hobby. He has played organized football since he was 7, and, even though he injured his knee last season, he continues working out twice a week and is unlikely to give up football soon.

"It's the best sport, to me," he said. "I play basketball, too, but this is my first love, right here. Football."

Semipro football is also robust and punishing; it becomes clear that these grown men are still in good shape. Occasionally, a player delicately limps off the field after a big hit. Players curse at opponents who they think threw a block too close to their knees.

There is trash-talking and showmanship. Bates shimmied in the Predators' backfield after sacking their quarterback on a crucial third-down play. Before another key play, Bates hollered, "Now we've got 'em!" loud enough for the Predators to hear.

It's Rough Out There

Because the Terminators dress in black, have a fearsome nickname and have established themselves as a competitive team, their opponents tend to hit them hard, and the Terminators tend to hit back. Punches are thrown, and punchers are suspended.

McGill, who works as an engineer for Amtrak, said: "Once you get into semipro football, it's all about business. We don't tolerate violence or anything."

Giacobbe remembers an opposing team that wanted to fight the Terminators after losing a game to them a few years ago. "We just got into our cars and left," he said.

They sorely need the manpower. The Terminators have 37 players on their roster, LaDuna said, but because of weekend obligations and nagging injuries, they usually only have 27 or 28 players for a game, which is nearly three hours long.

Paige said the Terminators have brought on four or five players who have just graduated from high school and are looking for a chance to play at a local college. Scouts are said to show up at games, but the next level - either college or pro - seems far away.

"I try to be honest with guys and tell them it's going to be real hard to make it from this level," Paige said.

Licopoli says the N.A.F.L. is capable of expanding to as many as 240 teams, including as many as seven in New Jersey. But semipro teams come and go, and keeping players is hard. Raising money is harder.

A semipro team named the Newark Jets played for the United Football League championship for three straight years, from 2001 to 2003. Last year the team compiled a 5-6 record and then vanished.

McGill, who played for the Brooklyn Mariners before retiring at 43, put together a team nicknamed the Buccaneers that did not last long. "I couldn't keep it going because I didn't have the funding," he said.

What there is, what there will always seem to be, are football players who have never stopped loving the game. Jennings smiled when he pointed out that he is almost as old as LaDuna, the coach. But he plans to keep playing. He likes the exercise.

"Oh, I'm still out of shape," Jennings said. "I'm the old man here."

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