Albany Firebirds look to clinch homefield advantage
ALBANY, NY (NEWS10) -- After seven straight wins to start the season, the Albany Firebirds suffered their first loss this past Saturday at MVP Arena, falling to the Orlando Predators. With everything in front of them, the beat-up Firebirds are looking to refocus heading into a huge matchup with Billings.
The Firebirds were dealing with a slew of injuries in the secondary in their 57-49 loss to Orlando. They're getting some guys back and adding new pieces, and just in time.
The Firebirds head to Billings to take on the Outlaws Saturday. The Outlaws are only a half game back of the Firebirds for first place, and they're the only other team with only one loss.
The Firebirds can clinch home field advantage with a win. "We love playing in front of our crowd," said wide receiver Darius Prince. "It's the best fans in arena football, so our main goal is to take care of business this week, go to Billings and make sure we come out of there with a victory so we can lock up our home playoff game."
Not only would it be big for the team, it would be huge for the fans. "This year's been weird," said head coach and general manager Damon Ware. "Playing Thursday games, Sunday games, Monday games, we really haven't got to showcase all these exciting games to our fans. We know we're a Saturday town and we've only had two Saturday games, and our attendance was very good. So securing that playoff date on July 13th, another Saturday game, would be huge for our organization and huge for our town to be able to celebrate all the success of the season."
Kickoff on Saturday is set for 8:00 PM.