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(The Plain Dealer)

NICK WILLIAMS

Special to the Plain Dealer

TAMPA, Florida – With a 56-49 win over the Tampa Bay Storm Saturday night, the Cleveland Gladiators officially finished with the best single-season record in franchise and Arena Football history, improving to 17-1 overall before a season-high announced crowd of 14,770 at Amalie Motor Oil Field.

With the win, the Gladiators, already the top seed in the American Conference, secured home field advantage throughout the 2014 playoffs, including ArenaBowl, should they reach the AFL championship. They also ended Tampa Bay's playoff hopes.

"We really didn't talk about (the record) that much all year until this week," Gladiators coach Steve Thonn said. "Our motto all year has been one game at a time because it's hard to think about with 18 games, it's so long, but we knew that we could do something that no one else has done, set the record with 17 wins. We tried to keep the same mentality that if we win this game we'll get 17. It does mean something. It's great for our guys and great for the organization."

The Gladiators (17-1) will host Philadelphia (9-9) in the first round when the playoffs begin on Aug. 2. With Pittsburgh defeating Philadelphia, 64-34, earlier Saturday, the Storm needed a win to make the AFL playoffs as the fourth seed in the American Conference.

"It's going to be a tough game," Thonn said. "Philly is still loaded with talent and they're still a great team. They've had their struggles this year with some ups and down but they're a very dangerous team and we know that because we've had two tough games against them."

In a game the Gladiators never trailed, Shane Austin completed 24 of 32 passes for 273 yards and five touchdowns, giving him 99 touchdowns on the season. Austin's top target, Thyron Lewis, finished with 10 receptions for 119 yards and three touchdowns while Dominick Goodman caught seven passes for 82 yards.

Tampa Bay had an opportunity to tie or take the lead after an attempted onside kick following a 1-yard touchdown run by Storm quarterback Randy Hippeard with 51 seconds left, but it was recovered by Cleveland. A Tampa Bay penalty on a Cleveland field goal attempt with 16 seconds left nullified Aaron Pettrey's missed attempt from 18-yard out, and the Gladiators ran out the clock to end the game.

With home field advantage on the line, Thonn decided to play his starters, notably Austin, the entire game though the team's playoff spot was already clinched.

"We didn't know what (the outcome) of the Arizona game was and we still thought it was important to host all the way through," he said. "Because we still had that chance we felt we owed it to everybody to try to win the game and get there. If there was some other circumstance, maybe we would have thought about it but during the game, we just wanted to win the game."

The Gladiators' efficiency on third down proved to be the difference in the game, finishing 4-of-6, which included a key conversion late in the fourth quarter. The Gladiators were not, however, as efficient on defense, committing a season-high 14 penalties for 138 yards and allowing Tampa Bay to reach the red zone five times.

Hippeard led the Storm with 248 passing yards and four touchdowns, along with two rushing touchdowns. Joe Hills added 119 receiving yards and three touchdowns.

Cleveland held a 56-42 lead with just over four minutes left in the fourth quarter on a 4-yard pass from Austin to Lewis. The Gladiators gave themselves a short-lived cushion in the third quarter, scoring 14 unanswered points heading into the fourth on an 8-yard pass from Austin to Collin Taylor and a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Goodman, his second of the night.



The teams traded scores in the first half, playing to a tie four times until Cleveland took a 35-28 lead on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Austin to Lewis with seven seconds remaining in the first half.