Congratulations to the Albany Firebirds on completing a perfect season from the beginning all the way to the Arena Crown where they narrowly defeated the Nashville Kats 60-57.
Coach Damon Ware and company put on an absolutely stunning display of dominance. They outscored their opponents this season 675 to 276. Very few of Albany’s AF1 competitors gave them a real challenge. In the Firebirds ten regular season victories, only Nashville and Salina were able to keep their deficits to six.
For the Kats, despite an unexpected loss to Billings in Week 13, Nashville’s been in top form. They pulverized the Tritons into a fine powder in Week 14. They then convincingly handled their business in the semifinal against SW Kansas. If anyone was going to beat the juggernaut that is the Albany Firebirds, it was going to be Nashville on their best day.
Unfortunately, we did not get Nashville on their best day.
What have we always said? What does any team need to do to beat Albany? You might say it’s a trick question. How can we know? No one’s done it, but the teams that get the closest to beating Albany, play their game plan to perfection. Minimal turnovers. Minimal penalties and then if you can somehow trick the Firebirds into a rare mistake, you have to take advantage.
You can see by the final score that Nashville played a great game. They got closer than any other team this season to slaying the Dragon from Albany. But close does not get you the Arena Crown.
Both teams started this game strong. Firebirds Kicker Henry Nell stepped in for the opening kickoff and let the fine folks of Nashville know immediately that they’d have to pry the Arena Crown from his cold dead… feet.
Right here, literally before a second of clock had ticked, Henry Nell showed us how important the kicking game was going to be.
The Kats responded with a perfectly Nashville drive. It started with a pitch to Zech Thomas, a 6’5” 315 lbs Offensive Lineman. According to Game Logs, this was Thomas’ first running play of the season. He’s caught passes in three other games, but this was the first time he carried the rock out of the backfield.
This simple play accomplished three things. One, it moved the ball forward four yards, which is about the average goal for every Kats offensive play. Two, it let Albany know that Nashville would be running the ball in this game. So, Albany’s defense would have to keep an eye on that. Three, it showed Albany’s coaching staff that there are still tricks in Coach Darren Arbet’s bag. He’d be pulling things out in this game we hadn’t seen all season.
Again, the rest of the drive was classic Nashville. Lots of quick and short passes. QB Tyler Kulka completed six passes on seven tries. They grabbed two First Downs, went 1-2 on Third Down conversions and converted their one Fourth Down for a Touchdown.
Kicker Gunner Raborn, who struggled towards the end of the regular season, nailed the PAT. 7-2 Kats. That drive took just over five minutes. This was gonna be a good one.
Then Coach Arbet made what we’ll call an unexpected decision. The Kats had just scored on the first drive of the game. They had the lead. There was 9:36 left in the First Quarter. Considering all of that, I don’t think I was the only viewer who was shocked when Raborn put down an onside kick. It was an incredibly aggressive play call. If it had worked, we’d have called it genius, but it didn’t.
Albany recovered the onside at the Four yard line and less than a minute later QB Sam Castronova took it up the middle on the first play from scrimmage for six.
8-7 Firebirds. Nell followed up Castronova’s score by Dropkicking the PAT, which is worth Two points in the AF1. He’s broken it out in a few games this season and it served him well in the Crown game. 10-7 Firebirds. Nell now had four of the Firebirds Ten points and Albany had only run two plays total.
Again, if the onside works, it’s genius. When it fails so spectacularly, it’s unnecessarily reckless.
On the Kats next drive, they continued to show off their textbook Arena offense. They ran four plays in about three minutes. The drive ended with Kulka connecting with Jordon Gandy for his second touchdown pass of the game.
13-10 Kats. Then, Raborn missed the PAT. That’s one point left on the table. Which of course in the grand scheme of things, it’s just one point. But in this game, you could argue that this one miss created a ripple effect throughout the rest of the game.
The first ripple would rear its ugly head less than a minute into the Second quarter when Nih-Jer Jackson caught a Kulka pass over the middle and faked two Albany defenders out of their cleats before taking it in for six.
19-17 Kats. Enter Ripple One. Coach Arbet and the Kats decide to go for two. There are any number of possible reasons for the Kats to go for Two here. Maybe they were always planning to go for two in the second quarter. It’s possible that Coach Arbet just wanted to make up the points from the lost PAT. It’s also possible he’d lost a little faith in his kicker. The simplest answer is two points are better than one. I can’t speak to the Kats Coaching staff’s thinking. Like the onside kick, we probably wouldn’t be talking about this if things had gone well. They did not.
19 All and now the Firebirds get the ball back on offense. They would score on that drive. Without even factoring in the two points they gave to the Firebirds on the two point try, that’s three extra points left on the table.
Albany would pull away for a healthy portion of the second and third quarter. Their lead would swell to 18 points. In fact, after their two point try early in the Second blew up in their faces, Nashville didn’t score again until about five minutes into the third quarter.
39-27 Firebirds. Out comes Raborn. We’ve already left three points on the table. The Kats have missed one PAT. They’ve failed on one two point conversion. What else is there to try? Coach Arbet and Raborn decide to try their luck at the dropkick PAT. Remember, it’s worth two points. They have to close this gap.
Raborn takes the snap. Moves to take his shot. It’s BLOCKED with authority by Firebirds defensive lineman Harold Love. It’s still 39-27 Firebirds and the Kats have now left five extra points on the table.
Despite their special team’s struggles, the Kats stay competitive. Kulka never stops pushing. With 5:07 left in the third quarter, Kulka again finds Gandy in the end zone for his fourth touchdown pass.
The Kats again go for two. This time they get it.
Raborn drills his first and only deuce of the game.
After scoring ten points in about 90 seconds, the Kats have cut the lead to 46-37 with about 3:30 left in the third.
Then the Kats do what so many of their contemporaries have failed to do, they capitalize on an Albany mistake. Castronova fumbles a snap. Nashville defensive lineman Ezrah Thibodeaux recovers with less than two minutes left in the third.
About a minute later–
46-43 Firebirds. Nashville again goes for the two point conversion. They miss. That’s seven extra points left on the table and the Kats are still within three. That’s as close as the Kats would get.
The two teams would spend the fourth quarter exchanging scores.
The Kats would miss one more two point conversion and finish the game having left NINE extra points on the table.
Henry Nell would hit all of his PAT’s and finish the game 6-6 on PAT’s, 1-1 on Dropkick PAT’s and had one deuce. He had 10 of Albany’s 60 points.
I feel like it’s important to note that it’s not just Gunner Raborn’s fault the Kats lost this game. No one player lost this for the Kats. The Kats played one of their more inefficient games. They had 11 penalties. They had two turnovers to the Firebirds one. The Firebirds scored a touchdown on literally every drive except for that one.
All of those factors came together to crown the Firebirds.
Let’s take a more focused look at some standout performances in this game:
Firebirds Fire on All Cylinders
Firebirds QB Sam Castronova put on a freaking show that was more than worthy of the Crown MVP:
Castronova was 17-25 passing. He passed for five of his touchdowns and ran for two.
Wide Receiver Isiah Scott had a career night with eight catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns.
Albany’s defensive backfield put Kulka and the Kats receiver corps to the test. Mike Lee had nine tackles. Markus Smith had eight and Tre Wortham had five.
Kats Can’t Close
Tyler Kulka threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Firebirds defense. He went 36-47 passing for 347 yards and seven touchdowns.
Kats receiver Nih-Jer Jackson caught 13 passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns.
That’s it for the 2025 season AF1 fans. Congrats again to the Firebirds and their fans. Check back with UFL News Hub next week where we’ll discuss the end of season awards and dive into possible offseason storylines as the AF1 gets ready for Season Two.
