{"id":54265,"date":"2016-08-07T20:58:08","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T03:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=54265"},"modified":"2016-08-07T21:37:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T04:37:05","slug":"kiss-season-ends-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=54265","title":{"rendered":"KISS Season Ends in San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Donovan<\/a>

Donovan Morgan can’t contain his emotions after the season and career ending loss to Cleveland<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

(San Diego) \u2013 The KISS saw a 12 point fourth quarter lead evaporate\u00a0and fell to Cleveland 56-52 Sunday in the first round of the playoffs before\u00a04,269 at the Valley View Casino Center.<\/p>\n

Leading 46-34 early in the fourth quarter the KISS appeared to be in control.\u00a0But Cleveland\u00a0quarterback Arvell Nelson found Devin Wilson on a corner route for a touchdown to cut the lead to 46-41.\u00a0The Gladiators then attempted an onside kick\u00a0and the KISS recovered. However they failed to convert\u00a0when Rory Nixon was stuffed on fourth down and Cleveland got the ball back.<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/a>

Josh Victorian provided the denfensive highlight for thr Kiss with an interception.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Gladiators took the lead when Nelson scored on a one-yard run with\u00a039 seconds remaining. Disaster then struck for the KISS. The ensuing kick off\u00a0bounced off the bar and right into the hands of\u00a0Wilson who sprinted into the end zone to ice the\u00a0victory.\u00a0The KISS offered one last murmur of protest when\u00a0Nathan Stanley hit Fred Williams for an eight-yard touchdown but it was too little, too late to stop\u00a0elimination.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0loss was a bitter pill to swallow for the KISS not only because\u00a0the lead\u00a0got away but also because kicker Garrett Lindholm missed four extra points –\u00a0the exact amount of points\u00a0 that they fell short.<\/p>\n

Cleveland led 20-6 after one and 27-25 at the half. Larry Beavers had a pick six for a score and Joe Powell returned a kick off for a touchdown to spark the Gladiators.<\/p>\n

Three touchdown passes by\u00a0Stanley \u2013 two to Donovan \u201cCaptain\u201d Morgan \u2013 in the second quarter kept the KISS\u00a0in the hunt. Clevan Thomas also had a big interception to set up an LA score.<\/p>\n

The KISS took their first lead of the game on the first possession of the third quarter when\u00a0Nixon scored on a run for a 32-27 advantage.<\/p>\n

Josh Victorian picked\u00a0off Cleveland quarterback Arvell Nelson on the next possession to put LA in position again. The KISS took\u00a0advantage when Stanley found\u00a0a streaking Morgan in the end zone and just like that the KISS were\u00a0up by 12 at 39-27.<\/p>\n

The Gladiators responded with a Nelson TD toss to cut the lead to 39-34.<\/p>\n

The KISS answered right back when\u00a0Nixon capped\u00a0a drive with a touchdown run to put the KISS up 46-34.<\/p>\n

Then the wheels came off.<\/p>\n

Stanley completed 19 of 34 for 205 yards and five touchdowns and an\u00a0interception for the KISS.\u00a0Morgan, who said he is retiring from\u00a0Arena Football, caught nine passes for 132 yards and three scores in his last game. Rory Nixon had two rushing touchdowns and one receiving.<\/p>\n

For Cleveland Nelson was 13 of 26 for 202 yards and a pair of touchdowns with a pick.<\/p>\n

The KISS finished the season at 7-10 overall while the Gladiators, now 8-9 advance to the next round to face the Arizona Rattlers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (San Diego) \u2013 The KISS saw a 12 point fourth quarter lead evaporate\u00a0and fell to Cleveland 56-52 Sunday in the first round of the playoffs before\u00a04,269 at the Valley View Casino 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":[536,12067,12119,9614,12120,9909,12118,11352,9181,12121,9816,11694,12117],"class_list":["post-54265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-news-notes-around-professional-football","tag-arena-football-league","tag-arvell-nelson","tag-clevan-thomas","tag-cleveland-gladiators","tag-devin-wilson","tag-donovan-captain-morgan","tag-garrett-lindholm","tag-josh-victorian","tag-la-kiss","tag-larry-beavers","tag-nathan-stanley","tag-rory-nixon","tag-valley-view-casino-center"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54265","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=54265"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54278,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54265\/revisions\/54278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}