Anchorage Daily News

To be the best, you have to beat the best. And in the Intense Football League, the benchmark for success is undoubtedly the Louisiana Swashbucklers.

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Dr. Randy Deeter is the new owner of the Alaska Wild.

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The Alaska Wild may not have vanquished the Swashbucklers, but Sunday's 55-49 back-and-forth loss at Sullivan Arena might have been a bigger statement to the rest of the league than any of their four wins.

To find the silver lining to the Wild's last-second defeat, you only need to look at Louisiana's sterling resume: The win improved the defending IFL champs to 7-0 on the year and 22-1 since the start of the 2007 season.

The Swashbucklers have sliced through the rest of the league to the tune of 74.5 points a game and a whopping 51.2-point margin of victory. To put it bluntly, there had been no drama in Louisiana's season.

Until they hit the Sullivan turf.

"They're the best competition we have," said Louisiana wide receiver Sammy Knight, who scored five touchdowns for the winners. "This is the closest game we've been in all year. Usually we jump on people and stay up, but we couldn't do that to them."

After one half, Knight had shredded the Wild for three touchdowns and the score was 31-7. It looked like business as usual for Louisiana and that Alaska's home field mojo was now a no-no.

But the Wild and the near 2,500 fans in the stands weren't willing to go quietly, and the second half proved just as topsy-turvy as the week of nonfootball nail-biting over coaches going and coming and team ownership changing hands.

"We've been able to come out and dominate people start to finish," Louisiana coach Darnell Lee said. "We had them at halftime where we have everyone else ... but they rallied."

The Wild buckled down on defense, locked down receivers, put a hurting on Louisiana quarterback Alvin Bartie and held the visitors scoreless until the final play of the third.

"I got a rookie quarterback, and he needed to get banged around a bit and see how it's really going to be in the playoffs," Lee said. "He got banged around. They did a good job up front."

Alaska certainly benefited from the home field, where it had won six in a row, and players fed off the fan noise to make a lopsided game competitive. The Swashbucklers appreciated the lively crowd, something they rarely see on the road.

"There's no other atmosphere like this. The fans stayed at it and kept their team in it," Knight said.

"This is as close to an Arena (Football League) atmosphere as you'll get," Lee added.

Lee was impressed with how the Wild players responded to the firing and rehiring of coach Hans Deemer and the change in ownership from David Weatherholt to Dr. Randy Deeter in the last week.

"It made them stronger," said Lee of the adversity. "They're definitely a better team than what we saw on film. Alaska has a great team."

Those words seemed improbable one week ago when there was uncertainty if the Wild would even suit up Sunday. Alaska may have lost the game, but in the end they won the respect of the Swashbucklers.

"It was a true test tonight," Knight said. "They've got great athletes over there. If they just keep the ball rolling, they're going to be all right."

KCFT, cable Channel 19 and noncable channel 35, will rebroadcast Sunday's game tonight at 8 p.m.

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