Roped and tied

The shocking thing wasn’t the seven-point gap when Spokane and the Austin Wranglers went in the locker rooms at halftime.

It was the fact that only three touchdowns had been scored.

Spokane led 14-7, which is all but unheard of in the offense-heavy arenafootball2 league. That’s the playoffs for you – anything goes.

That’s not to say it led to a surprise ending. Just a happy one.

The top-seeded Shock ended the Wranglers’ season on Saturday night with a 42-14 victory in the opening round of the af2 playoffs. Spokane (16-1), which will play the winner of today’s National Conference quarterfinal between the Central Valley Coyotes and the Arkansas Twisters, was one of two top seeds in the playoffs to advance to the conference semifinals.

In the National Conference, seventh-seeded Amarillo upended defending ArenaCup champion and No. 2 seed Tulsa 65-62. The American Conference No 2-seeded South Georgia Wildcats – who handed the Shock their only loss of the regular season – were knocked off 46-42 by seventh-seeded Manchester.

“Anything can happen in the playoffs – it’s another season,” Shock receiver Raul Vijil said.

Vijil, who led the Shock with 124 receiving yards, hauled in a 5-yard pass from Shock quarterback Nick Davila to give the Shock a 21-7 lead in the third quarter. He was held to one touchdown on the night after finishing the regular season second in the league in scoring (averaging 18 points a game).

Receiver Andy Olson caught two touchdown passes and offensive lineman Kyle Young also had two TD receptions. Olson and Young caught Spokane’s two touchdown passes in the first half.

“We came out pretty flat,” Young said. “We kept pounding and finally it broke open.”

After Vijil scored on Spokane’s opening drive of the second half, the Wranglers (8-9) failed to get out of Spokane territory on their first drive of the half. Spokane took over on its 24-yard line and on the first play Davila connected on a pass to Olson to extend the Shock’s lead to 28-7.

Austin quarterback Andy Hall scored on a 3-yard run on the ensuing drive for the Wranglers’ final points of the night.

Shock defensive back Sergio Gilliam picked off Hall twice, one toward the end of the first half and again on a deflection in the end zone off the hands of Austin receiver John Roberson.

“The defense played big – they’ve been huge all year for us,” Vijil said. “In big games they’ve stepped up. I don’t know if it was just nerves in the first half, but on offense we need to have that calm. At halftime we calmed down a little bit and we executed.”

After, of course, Shock coach Adam Shackleford said a few words in the locker room at halftime.

“The good old threaten-some-players (routine),” Vijil joked.

“It doesn’t take much to motivate these guys,” Shackleford said. “They knew they didn’t play well. I had to get a little emotional and tell them the reality – the reality is if we don’t win we go home, and we don’t want that.

“We’ve got a tight group, so we fought back. We still didn’t play very well at times, but we got a win.”

Extra points

The 14 points Spokane allowed were the second fewest in af2 playoff history. The Peoria Pirates beat the San Diego Riptide (no longer a franchise) 22-12 in 2002. … Spokane fullback Katon Bethay (knee) did not play. … Former Arena Football League veteran Etu Molden was not in the lineup. … Shock kicker Brian Jackson missed two field-goal attempts. Jackson was 6 for 6 on point-after-touchdown kicks.