Knight Hawks ready to take on Green Bay in IFL championship game

It’s 96 degrees by 10 a.m. Wednesday at Capriola Park in Henderson. The Knight Hawks are outdoors preparing for the most important game of the Indoor Football League season.

It’s not the first time the team has done this. Coach Mike Davis has always liked the idea of testing his team’s mental fortitude that way. It’s just ironic that this is how the Knight Hawks are trying to achieve their ultimate goal.

The fourth-year franchise will play the Green Bay Blizzard for the IFL title at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Tucson Arena in Tucson, Arizona. The Knights Hawks, the Western Conference’s No. 4 seed after a 10-6 regular season, reached the final by defeating the top-seeded Bay Area Panthers 36-31 in the first round Aug. 3, then knocking off the No. 3 San Diego Strike Force 74-68 in an overtime thriller Aug. 8 at Lee’s Family Forum.

It’s hard to say the year hasn’t been a fun one.

“It’ll be more fun if we can get one on Saturday,” Davis said.

Not a fluke

The Knight Hawks won 11 games combined the first two seasons before shattering expectations last year. They went 11-5 behind the play of quarterback Ja’Rome Johnson, who was named IFL MVP, and reached the playoffs for the first time.

Injuries, however, proved to be the team’s undoing. Johnson was hurt in the second half of the Knight Hawks’ first-round matchup with the Arizona Rattlers and they lost 39-38 when quarterback Dalton Sneed ran for a touchdown on the final play.

“You know, as much as it hurts to say, maybe we weren’t mentally ready for that success last year,” Davis said. “Things happen how they’re supposed to happen.”

The Knight Hawks’ high-flying offense then stumbled out of the gates this year. Johnson suffered a hamstring injury April 11 in a loss to the Strike Force, which dropped the team to 1-2.

The Knight Hawks turned to backup Jayden De Laura out of their bye week and he helped the team defeat the San Antonio Gunslingers 35-28 on April 26. The team has used both of its quarterbacks ever since.

DeLaura is a gunslinger that often starts drives. Johnson is a rushing threat that’s dangerous in the red zone.

“We have two great quarterbacks. How can we make it harder for defenses?” Davis said.

Go up and get it

One thing that’s helped both quarterbacks succeed is throwing to one of the best receivers in the league.

Wide receiver Quentin Randolph finished the regular season with 991 yards and 23 touchdowns. He’s scored in all but three of the Knight Hawks’ 18 games.

Randolph, listed at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, can beat defenses with his speed or his height. He’s also come up big when his team has needed him to.

Randolph had six catches for 108 yards and five touchdowns against San Diego in the playoffs to send his team to the championship game.

“The way I look at it is, if I get open enough, you can throw me the ball,” Randolph said. “You just got to understand that with different people, there’s different timings. Practice helps a lot, but at the end of the day, if you get open and I do my assignment, no matter who it is, the quarterback could give me the pass.”

A lesson learned

The Knight Hawks could have folded late in their playoff game against the Strike Force, much like they did last year against the Rattlers.

Randolph’s fifth touchdown gave them a 68-65 lead with 14 seconds left. But the Strike Force drove down the field and kicked a field goal at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

The Knight Hawks were undeterred. Their defense dusted itself off and stopped San Diego on fourth down its opening possession of overtime. Johnson ended things the next drive with a 1-yard rushing touchdown.

The Knight Hawks will need the same kind of resiliency to beat Green Bay, the No. 2 seed from the Eastern Conference, which defeated the top-seeded Quad City Steamwheelers 71-64 to advance to the title game. The Blizzard are led by quarterback Max Meylor, who is the favorite to win MVP after throwing for 65 touchdowns and rushing for 26 more.

Green Bay is the IFL’s top offense, scoring 53.7 points per game. The Knight Hawks rank second at 48.7 points per game.

The team isn’t too familiar with its opponent — it hasn’t played the Blizzard, who are also seeking their first IFL title, since 2022 — but it knows it’s going to take a strong effort to win the championship. That’s why the Knight Hawks practiced outdoors Wednesday, so they’re ready for whatever comes their way Saturday.

“Coming from the Western Conference, there’s sometimes teams that we played three, four times a year, so it’s exciting to go get a different jersey in front of us,” Randolph said. “(Green Bay is) the top dogs in the East, we’re the top dogs in the West. If you’re a dog in football, you want to play the dogs in order to establish dominance.”

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.