{"id":929137,"date":"2026-07-12T04:15:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T04:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/929137\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T04:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T04:15:21","slug":"nashville-kats-beat-albany-firebirds-for-top-arena-football-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/929137\/","title":{"rendered":"Nashville Kats beat Albany Firebirds for top arena football seed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ALBANY\u00a0\u2014 If the Albany Firebirds want to repeat as Arena Football One champions, they\u2019ll probably have to go on the road to do it.<\/p>\n<p>The Firebirds entered Saturday\u2019s regular-season finale against the Nashville Kats at MVP Arena with a chance to take the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage for the postseason away from Nashville. Instead, while the Firebirds came back from an early 19-point deficit to tie the game on multiple occasions in the second half, the Kats were able to scratch out a 57-54 victory to lock up the top seed.<\/p>\n<p>Firebirds coach Damon Ware said that, while he was hopeful his team could turn the tables on Nashville and get the top seed, he\u2019s satisfied with being locked into the No. 2 seed and getting two straight bye weeks for his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/sports\/article\/albany-firebirds-arena-football-cdphp-pool-22335405.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">injury-riddled team<\/a> to get ready for the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been beat up all year,\u201d Ware said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had more season-ending injuries this year than we\u2019ve had in the last five combined. \u2026 We need those two weeks off. We will get close to being healthy, and you will see our team come the semifinals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the second straight week, there was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/sports\/article\/arena-football-albany-firebirds-castronova-kulka-22331655.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">no Sam Castronova in the lineup<\/a> for the Firebirds, with Joshua Kulka getting the start at quarterback against a Nashville team that featured his older brother, Tyler Kulka, under center.<\/p>\n<p>When asked why Castronova\u00a0\u2014 who posted on social media last week about a death in his family\u00a0\u2014 was inactive, Ware\u2019s response was vague.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI keep those things in house,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not really for public consumption, but, obviously, there were things that went on. There were things that needed to happen. Ultimately, I am very, very confident in Josh. \u2026 I would have no problem starting him in any game that I coach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As was the case in Nashville\u2019s 78-69 win over Albany on June 20 in Clarksville, Tenn., special teams played a crucial role. Nashville kicker Kyle Kaplan was a perfect 7-for-7 on extra points and connected on four deuces, while Albany\u2019s Brent Reis\u00a0\u2014 the team\u2019s third different kicker this year\u00a0\u2014 struggled on dropkick extra point attempts and did not record a deuce.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve changed kickers so many times,\u201d Ware said, \u201cand it just seems to be the same result every time. \u2026 There\u2019s a lot of frustration with the kicking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY\u00a0\u2014 If the Albany Firebirds want to repeat as Arena Football One champions, they\u2019ll probably have to go&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":929138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[342144,5229,369899,275397,425,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-929137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-alco","tag-america","tag-firebirds","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116905071460336597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}