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Los Angeles 23 at Arizona 35 Playoff


1984 Semifinals - Saturday, July 7, 1984
Los Angeles Express(11-8) at Arizona Wranglers(11-8)(-8)
Attendance: 33,188, TV: ABC

TEMPE, Ariz (AP) -- All week long, Arizona Wranglers Coach George Allen carried a palm sized white and-green pin in his right pocket which simply said, "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity".

Saturday night, Allen said his club "was as prepared as ever and took advantage of every opportunity" to defeat the Los Angeles Express 35-23 for the Western Conference championship.

"We worked hard all week getting ready for this one with LA because it was a championship game," said Allen, whose Wranglers are 0-3 against the Stars "Now we go on to the big one and we deserve it.

"We out-toughed LA. We were in better shape than they were We had conditioning, good execution and the belief that we could do it," added Allen.

Wranglers running back Tim Spencer, who scored three touchdowns, said "our conditioning really came through in the fourth quarter. We were definitely pumped up for this one."

Arizona scored 21 fourth-quarter points, taking the lead for good on Kevin Long's 1-yard touchdown run 40 seconds into the final period to cap a 10 play, 80 yard drive.

Spencer, who rushed for 94 yards on 18 carries, caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Greg Landry with 9:14 remaining for a 28-17 lead Spencer had scored twice in the first half on short runs.

Mack Boatner's 5-yard touchdown run sealed Arizona's win with 2 55 left.

Express quarterback Steve Young, harried all night by a heavy Wranglers pass rush, fired a 20-yard scoring strike to David Hersey with l:20 to go.

Young, the heralded rookie with the $40 million contract, completed just seven of 23 passes for 126 yards with two interceptions.

Express Coach John Hadl said "in the first quarter, we were physical and controlled the line of scrimmage and moved the ball on them. But you got to play 60 minutes and not 30. They just whipped us in the second half."

Complete Game




Highlights




	1	2	3	4	F
LA	3      14	0	6   -   23
AZ	7	7	0      21   -   35

Scoring

LA: Zendejas 25 yd field goal - LA 3, AZ 0

AZ: Spencer 4 yd run (Corral kick) - AZ 7, LA 3

LA: Nelson 11 yd run (Zendejas kick) - LA 10, AZ 7

LA: Nelson 1 yd run (Zendejas kick) - LA 17, AZ 7

AZ: Spencer 6 yd run (Corral kick) - LA 17, AZ 14

AZ: Long 1 yd run (Corral kick) - AZ 21, LA 17

AZ: Spencer 5 yd pass from Landry (Corral kick) - AZ 28, LA 17

AZ: Boatner 5 yd run (Corral kick) - AZ 35, LA 17

LA: Hersey 20 yd pass from Young (pass failed) - AZ 35, LA 23

Box Score

                              LA             AZ
First Downs                   19             18
Rushes-Yards              38-193         37-176
Passing (A-C-Y-I)     24-7-126-2    21-10-158-2
Sacked-Yards Lost           4-36            1-5
Total Plays-Yards         66-283         59-329
Fumbles-Lost                 0-0            1-0
Penalties-Yards            10-60          10-41
Turnovers                      2              2
Time of Possession         29:38          30:22

Attendance = 33,188

LOS ANGELES				     ARIZONA
Passing     Att Cmp Yds In Td  Rate          Passing     Att Cmp Yds In Td  Rate
Young        23   7 126  2  1  28.5          Landry       21  10 158  2  1  49.4
Partridge     1   0   0  0  0  39.6          

Rushing     Att Yds  Ave TD                  Rushing     Att Yds  Ave TD
Mack         14  88  6.3  0                  Spencer      18  94  5.2  2
Nelson       18  72  4.0  2                  Long         13  60  4.6  1
Young         2  24 12.0  0                  Boatner       4  12  3.0  1
Warren        4   9  2.3  0                  Landry        1   8  8.0  0
                                             Dennison      1   2  2.0  0

Receiving   Rec Yds  Ave TD                  Receiving   Rec Yds  Ave TD
Scott F       1  39 39.0  0                  Willis        3  60 20.0  0
Hersey        2  27 13.5  1                  Clark         2  49 24.5  0
Mack          1  24 24.0  0                  Johnson T     2  22 11.0  0
Gunn          1  16 16.0  0                  Ricker        1  11 11.0  0
Townsell      1  15 15.0  0                  Long          1  11 11.0  0
Boddie        1   5  5.0  0                  Spencer       1   5  5.0  0

Kick Returns   No Yds  Ave TD                Kick Returns   No Yds  Ave TD
Boddie          2  36 18.0  0                Tolbert         1  21 21.0  0

Punt Returns   No Yds  Ave TD                Punt Returns   No Yds  Ave TD
Gunn            3  26  8.7  0                Brown           3  24  8.0  0

Kicking          Fg  Lg   Xp  Pts            Kicking          Fg  Lg   Xp  Pts
Zendejas        1-1  25  2-2    5            Corral          0-0  --  5-5    5
                miss: --                                     miss: --

Punting        No Yds  Ave                   Punting        No Yds  Ave
Partridge       4 222 45.5                   Corral          4 164 41.0

Sacks          Sk Yds                        Sacks          Sk Yds
Jenkins         1   5                        Ehrmann         1  12
                                             Young           1   9
                                             Buben         0.5  4.5
                                             Smith         0.5  4.5
                                             Lathrop       0.5   3
                                             Lee           0.5   3

Interceptions  No Yds  Ave TD                Interceptions  No Yds  Ave TD
Henderson       1  28 28.0  0                Bradley         1   9  9.0  0
Pattillo        1  17 17.0  0                Fahnhorst       1   0  0.0  0 

Archived news report
Archived news report

Supplemental information courtesy of Chris Blackburn


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