Three weeks ago, the Albany Empire suffered their worst loss and also experienced their worst quarter of the season against the Philadelphia Soul. In their regular season finale, they returned the favor.

The Empire took advantage of mistakes made in the third quarter by the Soul to win 72-27 in front of 10,981 at the Times Union Center on Saturday evening. The 45-point win marked the largest margin of victory in the Empire’s short history.

The Empire built their win off of 35 points on five Soul turnovers: DB Al Phillips created the first turnover of the game by stripping Soul WR BJ Bunn on Philadelphia’s opening drive. The turnover came at a cost as Phillips injured his ankle and would not return. It took the Empire two plays to make the most of the turnover with Tommy Grady’s first of two touchdown passes to WR DJ Stephens, who played in his first game in six weeks, to go up 7-0.

“It’s just a good release of energy that I’ve been missing for so long,” said Stephens. “I was just excited.”

The relentless play on defense carried on into the second quarter when, on the Soul’s first possession of the quarter, DL Rodney Fritz strip-sacked QB Dan Raudabaugh. The ball was recovered in the end zone by the Soul, resulting in a safety for the Empire. Each team would score on their remaining two possessions and the Empire went into the locker room with a 30-20 lead.

The defense continued to shine in the second half; after the Empire offense opened with a score, the game turned into the Cheatham Norrils Show. Norrils picked off Soul QB Patrick O’Brien to end two consecutive Soul drives with both turnovers converted into touchdowns. A turnover on downs, a recovered fumble, and Norrils’ third interception of the half were all converted into points as the Empire went up as much as 52. The Soul didn’t allow the Empire defense to skunk them in the second half when O’Brien found WR Jay Williams for a 4-yard touchdown pass.

“Big word of the day is when we get a turnover or when we get a stop: capitalize,” said head coach Rob Keefe. “So, as the offense comes on the field, every defensive player looks at them and says, ‘Capitalize, capitalize, capitalize! Take advantage of the turnover that got and we’ll get you another one back…’ It’s a momentum swing.”

With the loss, the Soul finished as the 3 seed in the upcoming playoffs based on Washington’s win over Columbus earlier that day. Albany clinched the 1 seed in Columbus in Week 12 and elected to host the first game of their series against Baltimore on July 27.

“I think we’ve been preparing as a whole pretty well: offensively, defensively, and special teams, so I think we’re clicking on all cylinders,” said Norrils. “It’s going to be difficult to beat us as a team… we’re hitting on all phases of the game.”

One player who quietly had a great regular season is Empire DB Tevin Homer. Homer finished first in the league with 85.5 total tackles to go with an interception and a forced fumble. If there was a Defensive Rookie of the Year award, Homer would be in consideration for this award… The Empire offense as a team finished the season first in several offensive categories, including points per game (51.7), yards per game (282.2), offensive touchdowns (84), and sacks against (2)… In his return to the Arena Football league, DB Maurice Leggett finished with seven tackles and was responsible for one pass breakup.

Ryan McCarthy has been an on-and-off Internet columnist and blogger since 1997. He has been an avid follower of Arena Football since 1990 when the Albany Firebirds were established. Ryan currently attends Regent University, where he is pursuing his Bachelors degree in Communications with a Journalism concentration. He anticipates graduating toward the end of 2019. You can follow Ryan on Twitter at @rwhoisryanmcc