Las Vegas – Mike Hohensee threw the first touchdown pass in Arena Football history and led his team to the league’s inaugural championship game, where he lost to the Denver Dynamite.
Nineteen years later, the former Pittsburgh Gladiators quarterback returned to the ArenaBowl, this time as coach of the Chicago Rush.
On Sunday, he experienced firsthand what he had been preaching all those years: It means something to be the best.
“It feels great,” Hohensee said after the Rush beat the Orlando Predators 69-61. “It feels like I thought it would.”
Even if you have to compete for two decades to get there.
Chicago’s Matt D’Orazio passed for six touchdowns and ran for two more in the second-highest scoring ArenaBowl to complete an unlikely championship run for the Rush, which won three straight road playoff games to reach the ArenaBowl.
After losing six of seven games, it appeared Chicago would miss the playoffs. But it won three of its final four to finish 7-9 and qualify.
Hohensee, 45, has played or coached in the AFL in each of its 20 seasons. He has been a head coach for 13 seasons, including six with the Rush. He threw the league’s first touchdown pass in 1987 for the Gladiators, who went on to lose 45-16 to Denver in the title game.
D’Orazio completed 26-of-36 passes for 250 yards Sunday. The 29-year-old quarterback, in his first season with the Rush, was 88-of-135 for 992 yards and 21 touchdowns with one interception in four postseason games.
Orlando coach Jay Gruden failed to win a seventh Arena- Bowl championship. He entered having won four as a player and two as a coach.
“We fell behind three touchdowns, and we just couldn’t catch them,” said Gruden, younger brother of Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden.
Bobby Sippio had 10 receptions for 110 yards and three touchdowns, and DeJuan Alfonzo caught eight for 61 yards and one TD.
Orlando’s Joe Hamilton completed 23-of-35 passes for 291 yards and six touchdowns. Javarus Dudley had 10 receptions for 117 yards and four TDs, and Jimmy Fryzel caught 10 for 98 yards and one score.
The Rush went ahead for good by outscoring the Predators 31-6 from late in the second quarter to early in the fourth. A 31-yard touchdown pass from D’Orazio to Sippio made it 55-34 with a little more than 13 minutes left.
