Soul take lead early to foil the VooDoo, 70-49

With their playoff hopes still alive, the Soul hosted a New Orleans VooDoo squad Friday night that had even more ground to make up to reach the Arena Football League postseason.

And in the game at the Wells Fargo Center, the Soul grabbed the lead in the first period of a badly needed 70-49 victory in front of an announced crowd of 7,626.

The Soul led by 18 points at halftime.

The teams had entered the game at the bottom of their respective divisions. The Soul, an American Conference East squad, are 4-7. The VooDoo, of the conference's South Division, dropped to 2-9.

"With the record we have, it would have taken a weaker team down," said Soul coach Mike Hohensee. "All I know is we have to keep winning to have a chance. We said we're going on that eight-game winning streak."

Soul wide receiver Donovan Morgan entered the game leading the AFL in receiving yards.

The third-year player reached a milestone when he caught the 100th touchdown pass of his career to put his team ahead, 48-29, with 9 minutes, 7 seconds remaining in the third period.

That 15-yard score was followed by another Morgan TD from the same distance, and the Soul had a 55-36 lead. The VooDoo trailed by 55-43 going into the fourth quarter.

Including his 5-yard touchdown reception with a little more than 10 minutes to play, which gave the Soul some breathing room at 62-43, Morgan has caught 87 passes for 1,387 yards and 26 touchdowns this spring.

He hauled in a game-high eight passes for 117 yards against New Orleans.

"I love putting on a show for the fans," Morgan said. "And it's great to reach those individual goals, but the main goal is to win the championship."

The visitors had taken a 6-0 lead less than a minute into the game. On the first play from scrimmage, Soul quarterback Ryan Vena and one of his receivers appeared to have a miscommunication, and the result was a 16-yard VooDoo touchdown after an interception by defensive back Matt Jackson.

On the play, Vena threw the ball directly to Jackson, who was on the right sideline with no Soul receiver close by.

But the Soul had the lead at the end of the first period after defensive back James Sadler picked off New Orleans quarterback D. Sadler and returned the ball 38 yards to the VooDoo 15-yard line.

Four plays later, the Soul had a 7-6 edge as fullback Darnell Whitley bulled into the end zone from 6 yards out on a fourth-and-one play with 5:13 remaining in the period.

The Soul went up by 21-9 before leaving the field at intermission with a 41-23 advantage.

Notes. Soul linebacker Brandon Perkins was suspended for the game because of his role in a fight last week as the team was losing to the host Cleveland Gladiators. . . . On Heroes Night, the Soul recognized fallen heroes and representatives from area police and fire departments.