Blazing start: Utah burns Voodoo at end

Improving the defense was the priority of the Utah Blaze during the offseason, as the team landed several veteran newcomers on that side of the ball.

It didn't show in the team's opener, however.

Still, the Blaze came away with a 63-61 victory on Saturday night in their season-opener against the New Orleans VooDoo in EnergySolutions Arena when Steve Videtich hit a 23-yard field goal on the game's final play.

"This is not good for me. I'm too old for this," said Blaze coach Danny White after the typical, down-to-the-wire AFL finish in front of 14,222 fans. "I'm a senior citizen now — I'm 55."

While the finish was heart-stopping, at least White's team came out on the winning end. The VooDoo, in their first game back after taking a year off as the city rebuilt following Hurricane Katrina, looked like they might send the Blaze fans home unhappy when they scored the go-ahead touchdown with 37 seconds remaining on an Andy Kelly to Darnell McDonald pass. But New Orleans' two-point conversion try fell incomplete and the Blaze trailed by just one point, 61-60.

The Blaze's hopes appeared dashed two plays later when QB Joe Germaine fumbled the ball and New Orleans recovered, but a VooDoo penalty kept the ball in Utah's possession. Two passes from Germaine to Siaha Burley set up Videtich's game-winning kick.

Videtich, the all-time leading scorer for a kicker in the Arena Football League history, actually had a rough second half. He missed a pair of second-half extra points — one on a block and the other after a penalty made it longer than it should have been. In addition, he didn't feel well.

"I woke up this morning with a fever and I wasn't feeling good," said Videtich.

His game-winner wasn't the best-looking kick of his career, either.

"It was an ugly ball," said Videtich, of his kick that grazed the left upright. "It was a little bit of a knuckleball. It wasn't my prettiest kick, but it will say three points in the paper tomorrow."

White was pleased with the play of his offense, but the Blaze defense held the VooDoo offense — led by former Blaze QB Kelly — without a score on just one possession, that being in the fourth quarter.

"I was very, very, very disappointed in the defense," said White. "I thought we'd be better than that."