by Aidan Napier

The day is July 5th and in the 33rd season of the Arena Football League we have once again reached the playoffs. The sixth seeded Nashville Kats traveled to the sunshine state to play the fourth seeded Orlando Predators at the Kia Center.

Coming into this game, the Kats had 3 straight bye weeks and were coming off an impressive win against the top team in the Billings Outlaws on their own turf thanks to Randy Hippeard, the 2017 AFL MVP and arena football veteran came out of retirement  which took many by surprise, he had last played for the Atlantic City Blackjacks in the 2019 season. He had an impressive and surprising game against Billings where he scored 7 touchdowns and led the Kats to a crucial win.

Orlando had been on a 4 game win streak, securing home field advantage with a 5-2 record. Many would contribute this to QB Drew Powell, the duel threat has been a problem for other teams even the Albany Firebirds who lost their only game of the regular season to the Predators.

Tons of fans thought it’d be a potential shootout between some of the best offenses in the league but Nashville’s defense locked down all game on Orlando so Powell had very little room to run all game which made Orlando’s offense desperate as Powell threw a pair of interceptions and fumbled once which the Kats took advantage of as their offense scored touchdowns on every possession.

In a game that is all about possession and scoring, these teams looked on totally different levels. Randy went back to cooking and passed seven touchdowns in the Jungle, three of which went into the hands of the Kats best wide receiver, Braxton Haley who had 62 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns, now having 16 TDs on the season through Nashville’s 8 games this season. Many football fans got excited when they saw a big man touchdown in the form of offensive linemen, James Atoe after a 7 yard catch.

When the whistle blew it signaled the end of Orlando’s ArenaBowl aspirations as they would lose to the Nashville Kats 62-32. A major upset to many, especially by 30 points as the away team.

The AFL Playoff action continues this Saturday on CBS Sports Network as the (#6) Nashville Kats will rematch the (#1) Billings Outlaws as the away team once again. Prior to this game will be the (#3) Salina Liberty heading to play the (#2) Albany Firebirds, both games will determine who plays in ArenaBowl XXXIII in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the American Dream Mall.