{"id":49127,"date":"2015-08-08T18:48:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-09T01:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=49127"},"modified":"2015-08-09T00:21:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-09T07:21:08","slug":"la-kiss-vs-san-jose-sabercats-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=49127","title":{"rendered":"That’s a Wrap for KISS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"It<\/a>

It was another stellar night for Donovan Morgan in the Kiss loss to San Jose. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

(Anaheim) – Maurice Purify scored six touchdowns\u00a0and San Jose blew open a close game in the second\u00a0half to beat the KISS 60-38 Saturday night in the final game of the season at\u00a0the Honda Center.<\/p>\n

The KISS finished the season on a three game losing streak\u00a0and went 4-14 overall. Meanwhile the Sabercats capped a 17-1 year, with their only loss coming at home to the KISS, and will now prepare of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

LA trailed by just six, 37-31 at the half, but turned the ball over three times in the second half and was outscored\u00a023-7.<\/p>\n

\"Rayshaun<\/a>

Rayshaun Kizer comes up with another turnover for the Kiss. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/p><\/div>\n

San Jose \u00a0scored on its\u00a0first two possessions.\u00a0The first on a four-yard run by\u00a0Purify and the\u00a0second on a TD strike of 49 yards from\u00a0Erik Meyer\u00a0to Purify in which Purify dragged two KISS defenders into the endzone with him.<\/p>\n

The KISS scored on a touchdown pass from Joe Clancy to L.J. Castille in between but the extra point was\u00a0botched and the\u00a0Cats were\u00a0up 14-6 at the end of one.<\/p>\n

Number three for Purify came\u00a0early in the second quarter when he was\u00a0wide open in the end zone\u00a0to haul in a 13-yard Meyer toss. Clancy\u00a0found\u00a0Donovan “Captain” Morgan\u00a0on the ensuing possession for a 20 yard\u00a0touchdown.\u00a0Again the extra point was\u00a0botched as the kicker tried to free kick the ball through the uprights.<\/p>\n

Purify\u00a0crossed the goal line again on the next possession on a two-yard\u00a0run\u00a0for the Cats\u00a0for a 28-12 lead. The KISS responded with a Clancy\u00a0to Morgan TD strike of 28 yards.\u00a0The extra point this time was good.<\/p>\n

The KISS defense stood up on the next series stopping\u00a0San Jose on downs deep in their own territory. Clancy took advantage with a one-yard touchdown run on first down. The extra point was\u00a0missed and LA was down by just\u00a0three.<\/p>\n

San Jose scored with 34\u00a0seconds left in the half as Purify picked up his fifth of the night on a two-yard jaunt. The KISS\u00a0immediately answered as Clancy hit Morgan from ten yards out\u00a0for\u00a0his third\u00a0touchdown of the night. The extra point was\u00a0blocked and San Jose’s David Hyland returned\u00a0it the length of the field for two points to give\u00a0San Jose a\u00a037-31 halftime lead.<\/p>\n

The KISS coughed it up on\u00a0their first possession of the third quarter.\u00a0Purify, who else?, scored again for San Jose on a six-yard run. That gave him all six touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The Sabercats\u00a0sacked Clancy in the endzone for a safety and then found pay dirt again.\u00a0The KISS could never recover.<\/p>\n

Morgan\u00a0hauled in one more touchdown pass and Rayshaun Kizer forced a turnover in the fourth quarter but it wasn’t nearly enough.\u00a0The Sabercats\u00a0broke\u00a0it open\u00a0late in the fourth quarter when Hyland came up with a pick six for a 60-38 lead. One more Clancy interception at the end of the contest and San Jose ran out the clock.<\/p>\n

“I thought Joe played really well in the first half but struggled in the second,” said KISS head coach Bob McMillen. “Obviously the turnovers hurt us tonight.”<\/p>\n

For now the KISS\u00a0is thinking about 2016.<\/p>\n

“We have a great group of core guys\u00a0going forward. We have guys like Donovan Morgan and Rayshaun Kizer\u00a0who are solid experienced guys,”\u00a0McMillen said. And what about quarterback?<\/p>\n

“We don’t know yet. We’ll have to look at all the tape and make a decision,”\u00a0McMillen stated.<\/p>\n

There was an announcement at halftime\u00a0about 2016 KISS season tickets for sale and Paul Stanley addressed the crowd before the game. By all indications\u00a0the KISS will be back next year. But\u00a0will McMillen?<\/p>\n

“I don’t know. My contract ends in October.\u00a0I’ll talk to ownership next week\u00a0and\u00a0I hope I’ll be back. But if I’m\u00a0not I hope Gene (Simmons) and Paul win a championship because they deserve it,”\u00a0McMillen added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Anaheim) – Maurice Purify scored six touchdowns\u00a0and San Jose blew open a close game in the second\u00a0half to beat the KISS 60-38 Saturday night in the final game of the season at\u00a0the Honda Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9180,9379,9581,9330,2238,11242,11455,9181,11454,9329,11316,11453],"class_list":["post-49127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-news-notes-around-professional-football","tag-arena-football","tag-bob-mcmillen","tag-erik-meyer","tag-gene-simmons","tag-honda-center","tag-joe-clancy","tag-l-j-castille","tag-la-kiss","tag-maurice-purify","tag-paul-stanley","tag-rayshaun-kizer","tag-san-jose-sabercts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49127"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49150,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49127\/revisions\/49150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}