Game goes up in smoke in final seconds for Utah

Steve Videtich, the Utah Blaze kicker, pretty much summed up the feelings of both the team and the 14,472 fans in the Delta Center on Friday night.

"Everybody is getting tired of losing by two, three or four points," said Videtich.

It was two points on Friday night. The Las Vegas Gladiators blocked a game-winning field goal attempt with 5.8 seconds left to beat the Blaze, 49-47.

It was the second home game this year in which the Blaze scored the exact same number of touchdowns as their opponent only to lose due to missed extra points. Utah fell to 3-6 with the setback while Las Vegas improved to 4-5.

"This is not a good feeling," said Blaze quarterback Jason Gesser, who made his second start in place of the injured Joe Germaine. "We lost. I probably won't sleep the next two nights thinking about that one pass."

The pass Gesser was talking about was an incompletion in the end zone on second down with 19.2 seconds left in the game.

"If I would have just held on to the ball for a split second more I could have hit (Siaha Burley) for a touchdown," said Gesser.

Despite the incomplete passes in the end zone on second and third downs, the Blaze still had a chance to kick a 34-yard field goal to win the game. The snap was good, the hold was true.

"It fielt good coming off my foot," said Videtich. "I hit it clean."

But Las Vegas' Steve Konopka got through untouched to block the kick.

"I knew late they were playing for a field goal so we put up an inside block and we got our hand on the ball and got lucky," said Gladiators coach Ron Stone.

The two teams each scored seven touchdowns in the game. The difference was that the Blaze missed an extra point kick on their fourth TD after a bad snap. Utah then tried to get the extra point back on their next possession by going for a two-point conversion, but Tom Pace was held just short on a run attempt.

"They made big plays," said Blaze coach Danny White, "and we didn't. . . . It's back to the drawing board."

The Blaze defense came up with a huge stand late in the game to set up a potential game-winning drive. Utah scored with 3:45 to play on a Gesser-to-Justin-Taplin pass to cut the gap to 49-47. But Las Vegas recovered the ensuing onside kick and had just five yards to go to score what would likely be a game-clinching touchdown. Instead, the Blaze defense held and got the ball back on downs with 55 seconds remaining.