The road to Arena Bowl XXI goes through Georgia and San Jose on Saturday, as the Georgia Force host the Columbus Destroyers in the National Conference Championship, while the San Jose Saber CatsChicago Rush in the American Conference Championship.
The Destroyers advanced to the Conference championships after clipping Tampa Bay Storm 56-55 in the opening round and upsetting Dallas Desperados 66-59 in the divisional round. Columbus wasn't supposed to get past Dallas, which entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed after a 15-1 regular season. In fact the Destroyers were a huge 12-point underdog in the game. Columbus pulled off the upset thanks to the stellar play of QB Matt Nagy. In the win Nagy threw for 285 yards with four touchdown passes, while also running in for a score. Damien Groce led all Columbus receivers with eight receptions for 170 yards with a touchdown.
After winning the Southern Division, the Force received a bye in the first round of the playoffs and easily knocked off Philadelphia Soul 65-39 in the divisional round. Georgia QB Chris Greisen torched the Soul for 301 passing yards with seven touchdown passes and a rushing TD.
This will be the third time this season that Georgia and Columbus will be facing each other. Way back in Week 5 the Destroyers edged the Force 62-61 as a 6.5-point home underdog, after Nagy converted a two-point conversion with 14 seconds to go. Nagy had a combined six touchdowns in the win, while Greisen had nine touchdowns and two costly interceptions. In the rematch in Week 14, the Force rumbled past Columbus 54-33 as an 8.5-point home favorite. Greisen outplayed Nagy, throwing six TD passes to Nagy's four.
In the American Conference Championship game, the defending Arena Bowl champs from Chicago will try to snap San Jose's long 11-game winning streak.
Chicago had a bye in the first round of the playoffs and easily got through the Divisional round with a 52-20 drubbing of Los Angeles Avengers as a 10.5-point favorite. An ailing Matt D'Orazio threw three TD passes before sitting out a good chunk of the fourth quarter. Receiver Bobby Sippio was the real star of the game though as he caught two touchdowns passes, ran in for another, and even made a touchdown pass that oddly enough found D'Orazio's hands in the end zone.
The SaberCats also got some rest in the first round thanks to a bye. In the divisional round, San Jose slipped past Colorado Crush 76-67 as a 12-point favorite. SaberCats' quarterback Mark Grieb tied an AFL record with nine touchdown passes, while James Roe was his favorite target on the day with five TD receptions.
The SaberCats and Rush faced off early in the regular season back in Week 2. The Rush edged San Jose 48-45 in that game as a 2-point home underdog. D'Orazio and Sippio were the leaders as usual, with D'Orazio throwing five touchdowns and Sippio catching three of them. Grieg threw for an amazing 346 yards with six touchdowns, but was intercepted twice.
Coincidentally these two teams also faced off in last year's American Conference Championship game, when Chicago clipped San Jose 59-56 on route to winning Arena Bowl XX
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