Road victory puts Blaze in playoff picture

LAS VEGAS — Andy Kelly is still perfect as the starting quarterback for the Utah Blaze and the expansion franchise took a major step toward a playoff berth Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Kelly became the Arena Football League's all-time leader in touchdown passes while leading the Blaze to a 63-52 victory over the Las Vegas Gladiators.

Utah is now 3-0 since Kelly joined the team. The Blaze improved to 6-8 on the year with the victory and put themselves firmly in the playoff picture in the AFL's American Conference. Utah began the day tied with Las Vegas and Chicago for the final two playoff spots, but the Rush and Gladiators both lost Saturday.

Kelly finished the game with nine touchdown passes, giving him 562 for his 13-year AFL career — four more than New York's Aaron Garcia, who is out for the year with a broken leg.

Kelly took over the lead from Garcia with a 4-yard TD pass to Tom Pack on Utah's first drive of the third quarter to give the Blaze a 35-24 lead.

Joe Germaine, Utah's starter for the first seven games of the season before breaking the middle finger of his right (throwing) hand during a win over Nashville, was dressed and ready to play for the first time in eight games. There was no way, however, Utah coach Danny White was going to bench Kelly after he had already led the Blaze to back-to-back wins over Los Angeles and defending ArenaBowl champion Colorado.

Siaha Burley was once again Utah's leading receiver with seven catches for 138 yards and three scores.

Already leading by 11 points, the Blaze took control of the game midway through the third quarter after Orshawante Bryant intercepted a Las Vegas pass and Kelly made the Gladiators pay. Bryant then showed what he could do on the offensive side of the ball, too, as he caught a 12-yard pass for a score, giving Utah a 42-24 advantage with five minutes to play in the third quarter. From there, the teams traded touchdowns, but Utah had a big enough lead to coast to the victory.

Kelly kept up his hot pace right from the start, completing all of his first six passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns before throwing his first incompletion of the night on the final play of the first quarter.

The Blaze didn't get off to a good start to the game. Las Vegas' Aleric Clark took the opening kickoff 7 yards deep in the end zone and returned it — virtually untouched — for a touchdown. The successful extra point gave the Gladiators a 7-0 lead.