Metro Mallers in the championship

10/21/2005 9:29 PM
By: Capital News 9 web staff

	Head Coach Norman Mann

Albany's semi-pro football team, now known as the Metro Mallers, hasn't won an Empire Football League championship in 17 years. The Mallers will try to change that Saturday night at Bleeker Stadium when they host Orange County for the EFL Championship.

Head Coach Norman Mann and the Mallers are in the title game for the second straight season. They lost last year's big game after going 10-1 during the regular season. But the Mallers enter this year's championship undefeated, a perfect 11-0.

In the 1970s and 80s, Albany's semi-pro team was considered one of the best in the country. It certainly looks like the Mallers are back.

Quarterback Scott Lawson said, "I think this is the first time in this league that anybody has had the opportunity to finish undefeated. In two years we have gotten to this point and I don't think we could be more pumped."

Mann said, "You know I have a saying, 'the only team that should beat us are our own selves.' And that's what happened in last year's game. We actually beat ourselves. To have the off season that we had – we've done a lot of recruiting, we've added ball players to certain spots that we were weak at last year. Because of that, we've taken right off."