Soul looking for redemption in ArenaBowl

Soul QB Dan Raudabaugh has thrown 301 touchdowns over the last three seasons.
Paige Ozaroski/Metro

While Philadelphia Soul players greeted fans, took pictures and signed autographs at a send-off party at Chickie’s & Pete’s Wednesday, coach Clint Dolezel took to the microphone and declared the new motto is “unfinished business.”

The Soul will take on the Arizona Rattlers Saturday (1 p.m., CBS) in a rematch of last year’s ArenaBowl, which Philadelphia lost, 72-54. The Soul have played the Rattlers twice this season, both resulting in losses by a combined score of 21 points.

Dolezel feels that the defending champion Rattlers have the Soul’s number.

“They’ve beat us three times over the last 12 months,” he said. “Until we beat them, they have our number. We not worried. We know that we can beat them. We had them beat in our place [at the Wells Fargo Center], and so we’re not really overly concerned.”

Why should they be? The Soul are two-time American Conference Champions in the AFL. They boast a prolific offense and a stingy defense. Dolezel feels that his squad is the best in the league.

“I would say so, but we got to prove it,” Dolezel said. “I’m pretty sure that Arizona would beg to differ, but since their record is better — and they beat us twice this year — we got to go and prove it.”

The way quarterback Dan Raudabaugh sees it, it’s just a matter of executing on both sides of the ball.

“We got different ways to execute on both sides of the ball, but we got another good defense,” Raudabaugh said. “We pressure the quarterback a lot, we force turnovers and on offense … I don’t think we score quite as many points [as last year], but we’re being efficient still.”