By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
It’s off to Saginaw, Michigan, for the opening round game of Arena Football One’s postseason playoffs for the Kentucky Barrels in what will be their shortest road trip of the season.
Just four hours and 51 minutes and 345 miles up I-75, past Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Flint.
But nevertheless, a road game, against a fourth-place Arsenal team (6-6) that both lost to the 7-5 Barrels, 34-26, way back on April 12, and finished behind them in the regular season. That’s despite the fact that almost all of the Barrels’ top players pulled out of the last two season losses in a contract dispute for a team that’s lost three straight.
The unavailability of NKU’s Truist Arena this weekend has the Barrels on the road again despite qualifying for a home playoff game.
Not sure the Barrels would know their home turf at NKU’s Truist Arena after nine weeks away since they haven’t been there since May 17. But they’ve been to the West Coast three times, to Duluth, Minn., two more with another trip to Beaumont, Texas.
So Saginaw should be a breeze of a trip, if you don’t mind the mosquitos. Just be sure to stop before you hit Lake Huron.
To say these teams are headed in different directions for their matchup at the Dow Arena Saturday at 4 p.m. is an understatement. The Arsenal have won four straight games heading into the playoffs while the Barrels, represented by a cobbled-together B-team the last two games, have lost three in a row.
But an upbeat Barrels’ owner, Corey Cunningham, is looking at this as a second chance start for his first-year team that has gotten every bad scheduling break possible this season – from the league and from arena availability at Truist in multiple weeks.
How the regrouped Barrels will play this out is anyone’s guess but this week’s roster does list stars like QB Darryl Overstreet Jr. – back from Canada; D-lineman Zeke Rose; receiver Darius Prince and DB Joe Powell so that’s a start on getting back to the group that beat Michigan more than three months ago.
The winner Saturday will advance to a road matchup the next weekend against the league champion Nashville Kats (11-1), whose only loss was to the Barrels, 37-36, back on May 3 at Truist.
Which was a long, long time ago. And in a place called home, which is not a word these Barrels will get to use until next year.