Fullback Phil Glover (#33) barrels over Detroit Fury defence

“I think our offensive line and defensive line played really well,” said QB Chad ‘Big Country’ Salisbury after the Toronto Phantoms’ home opener, April 25 at the ACC. “When you hold a team to 30 points — I think 13 of them came at the end — you’re not going to lose many games. They did a great job. It seems like we’re playing well right now, but we’re still making some crazy mistakes we got to fix.”

“I think we have to start to execute better. I don’t think there’s much to change,” continued Salisbury. “Our whole offence is in pretty much, our whole defence is in pretty much, I think we have to execute better, less mental mistakes and I think we’ll be a pretty tough team this year.”

The stands were not as packed as Phantoms fans and players would have liked, but the 7,107 who came out to see the 2001 Eastern Division Champions went home happy. The Phantoms took an easy 50-30 home opener win from a feisty Detroit Fury, went to 2-0 to start the season, and recorded its first home opener win.

- Phantoms 50, Fury 30 -

Phantoms' defence as solid as its offence

While the cities of Toronto and Detroit share a long-standing rivalry in baseball, hockey, and basketball, this game marked the first meeting on the Arena Football Field for the two clubs. If the bumping and grinding were any indication, the rivalry can now include the Fury, who caused a few unruly moments along the boards.

“We knew Detroit coming in was a team that did a lot of talking, they take a lot of cheap shots, it’s football and that happens,” said Head Coach and GM Mark Stoute after the game. “Some teams have that mentality, and we knew it was just a matter of staying focused, and don’t buy into it. Play our football game and we knew we would come out winning.”

The hits were thunderous, the fans were boisterous, while the tunes and the Q107 Phantasy Girlz keep the crowd pumped during breaks, timeouts, and half-time.

— Related story: Phantoms CEO confident Canada will embrace AFL —

From the onset of the game Salisbury made the field look tiny, going 21 for 32 with 283 yards passing. Salsibury connected with #1 Charlie Davidson for two touchdowns in the first half, and nailed a wicked 40 yard bomb to offensive specialist, #7 Damian Harrell, which set up a one yard touchdown run by fullback, #39 Jermaine Younger. Before halftime, Salisbury once again brought the Phantoms to within three yards of another down, then found tight end, #95 Kevin Ingram to set the score at 29-12.

Come the second half, the Phantoms found the paint over and over again for another 20 points, leaving Detroit to kick and scratch another 18 points from an extremely well-rounded, and aggressive Toronto team. Despite attempting to mount some kind of offence late in the game with two solid touchdowns the Fury could not catch up.

With Phantoms defensive back, #15 Ty Law picking off a Rickey Foggie pass and returning it 43 yards for another down in the 3rd quarter, a Del Lee (#11) interception in the fourth, and Salisbury continuing to connect with the likes of rookie FB/LB, #33 Phil Glover and Damian Harrell, Toronto coasted to a win.

	Wide receiver Luke Leverson (#8) drives for the paint

“[The crowd] was pretty good tonight, they may not have been the numbers we wanted but they were 7,000 and that kept us going,” said Stoute. “Defensively this year we’re a lot better football team. We’re a very physical team, it was something we wanted to achieve since last year and part of the reason why we went out and got [Assistant] Coach Frazier is because he’s kind of like myself, he’s a very aggressive, defensive coach and that meshes well with the athletes that we have and what we like to do.

“We picked up where we left off last year…we’re a hell of a football team, we’ll give anyone a run for their money on any given night.”

Thursday Night Gridiron Madness returns to the Air Canada Centre, as the Phantoms play host to the Indiana Firebirds on May 9th. Tickets to that game and the other home dates can be purchased by calling (416) 341-1552 or by logging on to the Phantoms’ Web site.

- Photographs by Bouke Salverda

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