By: Matthew Hester
Southern Indoor Football League
Media Relations Director

LAFAYETTE, LA (JUNE 17, 2010) – As the 2010 playoff season begins to approach, teams are still jockeying over playoff seeding and a lot will be decided when the Columbus Lions (6-3) of the Southern Indoor Football League travel to take on the surging Lafayette Wildcatters (5-4) this Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.

As the Albany Panthers have a chance to sew up home-field advantage this weekend in Greenville, the Lions and Wildcatters will battling over whom will control that all important second seed in the playoffs.  After all, the main key to success for all SIFL has been that home-field advantage as the combined inter-SIFL record for teams has been a stellar 18-3.  It’s simple for the Lions, win this Saturday and they will own the second seed while Lafayette must win out and come down to a tie-breaker if them and Columbus are tied.

Lafayette, none more so than others, has been a classic example of the home-field advantage as they are currently riding a four game winning streak with all four games having taken place in the friendly confines of the Cajun Dome.  In those games, the Catters outscored their opponents 282-129 including last weekend’s 48-46 victory over the first place Albany Panthers.

It’s no coincidence a large part for the Wildcatters turnaround has been due to the change behind center with Juan Joseph.  Since taking over, Joseph has completed 80 of 117 passes for 832 yards grabbing a total 23 touchdowns.  During their winning streak, the stellar play of Lafayette’s defense has been amped up holding opponents to just 201 yards/game while creating 13 turnovers.  Defensive back Clarence Pendleton, Week 13’s Defensive Player of the Week, has been the anchor for the Catters defense as his nine interceptions currently rank him second in the SIFL.

The two clubs met early this season back on April 24th as the Lions coasted to a 54-26 victory due in large part to intercepting four passes from quarterback Bo Bartik.  Columbus quarterback Chris McCoy enjoyed his second consecutive start going 19 of 37 for 257 yards and five touchdowns.

Last weekend, Columbus throttled Greenville 99-0 ending a two-game losing streak maintaining their one game edge over Lafayette for that second seed.  The Lions success continues to thrive on the defense’s ability to create turnovers along with the offense turning those turnovers into points.  Columbus enters Saturday with the number one scoring offense (64.8 points/game) along with the number one scoring defense (34.0 points/game). 

However, in their three losses the Lions have shown the ability of giving up the ball as well as not being able to move the ball offensively.  In their three losses, Columbus has a minus three turnover rate to go along with an average of 39 points/game compared to a plus 28 and 78 points/game in their six wins. 

Columbus travels to the Cajun Dome this Saturday night to see if they can halt the streaking Lafayette Wildcatters and clinch the second seed for the 2010 playoffs.  There will be separate broadcasts for the game as Catters fans can listen by tuning into AM ESPN 1420 and Lions fans can tune in by logging on to www.columbuslions.net and clicking on the listen live icon.

Either way, all Southern Indoor Football League fans can track Saturday night’s contest by logging on to www.southernifl.com and following the live twitter feed.