Rookie defensive back Jabari Gorman sets Valor single-game season high with nine total tackles
News Release, Washington Valor
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Washington Valor (5-5), were defeated by the Atlantic City Blackjacks (4-6), 70-41, Saturday night at Capital One Arena. Valor quarterback Arvell Nelson threw for 248 yards and four touchdowns to four different receivers. Wideout Dezmon Epps caught one touchdown and scored another on a kickoff return in the first quarter. Valor defensive back Jabari Gorman, playing in his second Arena Football League game, set a Valor single-game season high with nine total tackles (all solo).
After a bye week next weekend, the Valor return to action on July 13 at 7 p.m., taking on the Baltimore Brigade at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Md. The season series between the team is tied 1-1 with each team winning on their home turf.
VALOR NOTES & QUOTES
- Four Valor receivers caught a touchdown pass: Jared Dangerfield, Dezmon Epps, Reggie Gray and Josh Reese
- Dangerfield caught seven receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown, his team-leading fifth game this season with 7+ receptions.
- Nelson registered his 15th rushing touchdown of the season and has now scored at least one rushing touchdown in eight of Washington’s 10 games this season.
- Epps’s kickoff return touchdown in the first quarter marked his first of the season. Epps leads the team with 122.9 all-purpose yards per game.
VALOR HEAD COACH BENJI MCDOWELL
On what the team focuses on heading into next week’s bye week:
“We just have to get ourselves back together…We need to find a way to put games together back-to-back. This is our first big loss like this. Our guys haven’t experienced something like that this season, aside from allowing Albany to come back (in Week 8)…We just need to find our identity, stick with it and win some games.”
On hosting Army veteran Bill Downing as a special guest throughout the weekend:
“It was a pretty cool moment. I met him back in 2016 and he told me a story about how he dealt with his PTSD and how arena football got him out of that and gave him something to do. We decided to invite him up here and hopefully lift his spirits. To see somebody go through something like that and to see someone enjoy what we do that much that it keeps them out of depression means a lot. I know he enjoyed it.”
VALOR LINEBACKER ALVIN RAY JACKSON
On moving forward after the loss:
“We know what we have to do going forward. It’s no secret. We know we’re in fourth place. We know we have two games left. There’s only one thing to do – win. We control our own destiny. No one else does. We’ll put something together during the bye week, get healthy, get some players back that we lost and we’ll be back and ready for Baltimore.”