ESTERO, Fla. – Now that they have re-established themselves in arenafootball2 after their rebirth, the Peoria Pirates will spend the month of May getting reacquainted with some familiar foes.

This month, the opposition won’t just be Midwest Division opponents like Quad City and Green Bay. Head Coach Bruce Cowdrey’s retooled crew, coming off a satisfying 76-32 victory over Tri-Cities last week, will start the month of May in is this community halfway between Naples and Fort Myers on Florida’s west coast at Germain Arena.

The Pirates will meet up for the third time in their history with the Florida Firecats. There is something different about this contest, however. It will be the first regular season matchup between the two.

The Firecats, under fourth season head coach Kevin Bouis, are just one of three af2 undefeated teams left so far, holding a 4-0 record as they await their Pirates rematch. Bouis has been with the Firecats since 2002 and doubles as the team’s defensive coordinator. His playing days were spent with the Mississippi Mud Dogs of the National Indoor Football League in 2000 and 2001.

The Pirates and the Firecats have met twice before, but there was nothing routine about those contests. That is because both of the prior games determined the winner of af2’s ArenaCup Championship.

The first encounter was in the ArenaCup III championship game at Carver Arena on Friday, Aug. 23, 2002 with the Pirates taking their first af2 championship title in front of a crowd of 7,552, beating the Firecats, 65-42.

Two years later, the two met in ArenaCup V on Friday, Aug. 27, 2004, at Germain Arena here, with Florida coming away with a 39-26 victory. The Pirates went 7-2 in their last 9 regular season games, then followed that up by winning three playoff games leading up to the ArenaCup appearance that closed out that season.

When United Indoor Football’s Peoria Rough Riders emerged from a distance in 2005, any hope of seeing the Pirates play again in Peoria disappeared until the talk they would be back this season.

LB Freeman “More Productive”: Prior to Peoria’s game last week against Tri-Cities, Cowdrey had told Pirates linebacker William Freeman he needed to be more productive. “I mean, he did a good job (against Tri-Cities),” Cowdrey said of the 6 foot-3, 260 pound Freeman, a Furman University product.

All it took was a little Cowdrey-style encouragement. “I told him before (the Tri-Cities) game, I said, he needed to be more productive or he’d probably read his name in the paper (this) week and it wouldn’t be positive,” Cowdrey said. “And (Freeman) responded.”

Did he ever. Freeman put 5 unassisted tackles in the record books against the Fever last week, pleasing his coach.

“You don’t always like to challenge them like that, but I get to the point, where, you know, they either play or they go away. And he needed to play.”

Garth Starts His Next 700 Points?: You have until Saturday’s Pirates game against Florida to congratulate Pirates wide receiver Robert Garth for his recent achievement – having scored 700 points in his arena career. By then, the 6 foot-4, 235 pound Garth will be ready to start scoring again against Florida.

But as for last week’s accomplishment, Garth said he was trying not to let it get in the way of his game against Tri-Cities. The stat might not have gotten in his way at first, but Tri-Cities defensive back Ruschard Dodd-Masters did.

“I was trying too hard to get (the 700th point) out of the way, so that’s why I started off kind of slow,” Garth admitted.

Squib Kicks: UIF’s Bloomington Extreme are in first place in their division and are home Saturday to play River City.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Pekin Daily Times, Peoria Pirates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.