Tall task for C.R. Titans

CEDAR RAPIDS – If the Cedar Rapids Titans advance to their first United Bowl, they'll have toppled the Indoor Football League dynasty.

For the third-consecutive season, the Titans (9-5) will travel to South Dakota for Saturday's United Conference championship game against the Sioux Falls Storm (14-0). Sioux Falls has won four-consecutive IFL titles and a mind-boggling 50 home games in a row.

Kickoff is at 5:05 p.m., with the winner advancing to next week's United Bowl for the IFL championship.

'The biggest thing is execution,” Cedar Rapids quarterback Willie Copeland said. 'That team doesn't make too many mistakes and they capitalize off of your mistakes. If we could just execute our plays to our full ability like we have all season, we should put ourselves in a great situation to shock the IFL.”

Cedar Rapids lost the last two conference championships games to Sioux Falls by an average of 30.5 points per game. Sioux Falls committed the fewest turnovers in the league this season (16), while displaying a potent offense that led the IFL with 272.2 yards and 63.1 points per game.

'They're going to just keep coming at you,” Cedar Rapids Coach Mark Stoute said. 'And their whole thing is that you will break and you will make the mistake. So we cannot break. We have to play a mentally very, very sharp game and make sure that we don't break. And then, when that moment comes that every individual player faces during the face of a game, there's that one play, there's that opportunity to be great, make a play and we've got to make the play.”

Sioux Falls has not lost since the regular-season finale last year at the U.S. Cellular Center, 49-37. Winners of 33 of its last 34 games, Sioux Falls is two wins from a second undefeated IFL season in four years.

The Storm are led by quarterback Lorenzo Brown, who has thrown for 1,534 yards, run for 359 and has 56 combined touchdowns since becoming the full-time signal-caller after three games. Sioux Falls receiver Judd Harold led the IFL with 22 touchdown catches.

Sioux Falls owns two wins over Cedar Rapids this season, including a 46-31 home decision last week in a game with no playoff implications.

'If everybody just does their job and executes the game plan that coach gives us, we'll be perfectly fine,” Cedar Rapids defensive lineman Xzavie Jackson said. 'We've got the athletes, we've got the talent just like Sioux Falls has the talent. I think this year is our year, hopefully.”

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com