The Vegas Knight Hawks, anchored by former Arizona Wildcats quarterback Jayden De Laura, won their first Indoor Football League national championship by beating the Green Bay Blizzard 64-61 in a thrilling game at the Tucson Arena on Saturday night.
The matchup featured 17 lead changes and a spectacular quarterback duel between de Laura and Green Bay’s Max Meylor.
Green Bay nearly won it in the last second, but the referees determined that the ball did not cross the goal line. Vegas celebrated the win.
De Laura completed 12 of 15 pass attempts with one touchdown and also rushed for 74 yards and two touchdowns. Meylor went 13 of 18 for 187 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for 52 yards and two touchdowns.
It all came down to Vegas (12-6) being a little bit more efficient than Green Bay (12-7) in rushing the ball and the Blizzard giving up 29 more yards on penalties.
Although Green Bay had 331 yards of total offense compared to Vegas’ 304, the Knight Hawks had 174 rushing yards and the Blizzard had 144.
Vegas was highly efficient in distributing the ball to its players, as five different players scored at least one touchdown.
De Laura and running back Antonio Wimbush were the most effective players on the field. They combined for five of the nine total touchdowns that were scored by Vegas.
De Laura was named the MVP of the game after the incredible performance in which he seemed unstoppable.
What made the win more special for De Laura was the fact that he won the championship game and earned MVP honors in Tucson, where he was being cheered on by the same fans that rooted for him during his days with the Arizona Wildcats.
“It’s good to come back,” De Laura said. “It’s good to come back to where I finished out my school. It’s like my home away from home.”
De Laura transferred to Arizona in 2022 after two years with Washington State and made an impact that same year, throwing for 3,685 yards with 25 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also rushed for 122 yards and four touchdowns.
De Laura was injured in the fourth game of the 2023 season during a road game against Stanford, where current Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita took over and led the Wildcats to a 10-3 record and a victory in the Alamo Bowl over the Oklahoma Sooners.
De Laura and Fifita developed a close friendship during that time when they were in the same quarterback room.
Fifita attended last night’s game along with former head coach Jedd Fisch, who is now the head coach at Washington.
“He’s a great guy,” De Laura said of Fisch. “He’s a great family guy. He tries his best to please everybody but, you can’t please everybody… I’m appreciative of him and I just hope he knows that I got his back the same way that he got my back.”
De Laura was a force for the Knight Hawks in the 15 games he played, throwing for 1,166 yards, 34 touchdowns and only three interceptions.
De Laura did not just use his feet in the championship but for the entirety of the season, taking advantage of the improvisation and quickness that made him so exciting to watch with 247 yards rushing and seven touchdowns.
To summarize De Laura’s entire season and the road he took to return to the field, he stated, “It’s worth it to get back to playing football.”
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