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A record Duke City Gladiators crowd of 3,850 arrived at Tingley Coliseum on Saturday ready to party. After all, it’s not every decade Albuquerque sports fans get to watch a hometown pro team win a championship.

Thanks to three touchdown passes from Duke City QB Caleb Holbrook and a stout defensive performance, the Gladiators defeated the Sioux City Bandits 31-27, for the Champions Indoor Football title game, dubbed the Champions Bowl.

And like Duke City’s previous two playoff victories against Wichita and Texas, also at Tingley, the outcome wasn’t settled until the final minute. This time, the Gladiators’ offense was able to exhaust the final 5:42 and then watch black and white balloons and confetti cascade upon them from the rafters.

It was the first championship for an Albuquerque pro team since the Albuquerque Thunderbirds won the 2006 NBA Development League title.

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Duke City coach Dominic Bramante was almost out of breath moments after the game.

“Oh, man, I’m so proud of our team. We’re CIF champions, baby!” he yelled for all to hear. “It was the kind of game we expected, and we both fought to the end. We gutted the win out.

“This game really epitomizes our team. Albuquerque is a blue-collar city and we’re a blue-collar team.”

Shortly after the game, Mayor Tim Keller and league commissioner Ricky Bertz presented the Champions Bowl trophy to Bramante and his team while fans mobbed around them.

For Bandits coach Erv Strohbeen and his squad, it’s a long, quiet ride bus ride home to northwest Iowa.

“It was a very disappointing loss, obviously, but we got the matchup we wanted against the best team and we duked it out,” said Strohbeen, who has a 66-21 head coaching record in indoor football play. “Our guys were fighting all the way to the end. But congrats to those guys. They have a great front four.”

The game was a matchup of the strongest teams in the league, with Sioux City entering at 11-3 and Duke City at a league-best 12-2.

The Gladiators got off to a fast start with an 11-yard TD pass from Holbrook to Jared Elmore, who has made a habit of making acrobatic catches along the back wall. It was 7-0 just 1:14 into the game.

But the Bandits had the edge the rest of the half, thanks to the running of Darrian Miller, who had a league-high 38 rushing scores this year, including three this game. Two came in the first half, which ended with Sioux City ahead 17-14.

After both teams hit field goals early in the third quarter, the Gladiators took the lead for good.

First, Holbrook hit receiver Sedrick Johnson for a 15-yard score, which was Johnson’s second TD of the game. Then, Clifton Rhodes ran in for a touchdown from a yard out to help make it 31-20.

Miller’s third TD run of the game, from 3 yards with 12:42 left in the fourth, closed Sioux City’s deficit to 31-27.

From there the game turned into another high-wire act for the Gladiators, highlighted by a Rhodes lost fumble at the Sioux CIty 1 with 8:11 left. But Duke City’s defense held on the ensuing drive, and the Bandits missed on a 42-yard field goal try.

The Gladiators then ran out the clock.

Perhaps no one was happier to win than offensive lineman Oliver Lumpkin, who had tears streaming down his face as he wandered on the field while receiving congratulations from fans and players.

“We’ve been talking about winning a championship since training camp,” he said. “I’m just so happy to be a part of it.”

Bramante already had plans how to celebrate in a way that would mirror his team’s season.

“I’m going to Cliff’s,” he said, referring to riding another kind of roller coaster.

LONG TRIP: The Bandits had smooth sailing on their 16-hour bus trip to Albuquerque, but a busload of 25 team fans weren’t so fortunate.

They left Sioux City at 7 a.m. Friday and didn’t arrive in Albuquerque until 6 a.m. Saturday, about eight hours later than scheduled. Three times their ride broke down, including the last time in Santa Rosa, at which point emergency transportation was arranged from the Duke City.

In light of their troubles, Bandits management rented four vehicles for the fans to drive back. They planned to head home soon after Saturday’s game.

GLADIATORS 31, BANDITS 27

Sioux City 0 17 3 7–27

Duke City 7 7 17 0–31

Leading passers: SC, Liam Nadler 10-for-22, 119 yards, 0 TDs ; DC, Caleb Holbrook, 15-for 25, 160 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT. Leading rushers: SC, Darrian Miller, 58 yards 3 TDs; DC, Juwan Lewis, 56 yards. Leading receivers: SC, Frederick Bruno, 6 catches, 57 yards; DC, Jared Elmore, 6 catches, 66 yards, 1 TD