Albany Firebirds head coach Damon Ware has had one simple motto for his players all season.

“Do what got you here. Do your eighth, as we say,” said Ware, referring to the eight players from each team out on the field. “If you do those simple things and execute good football, we can win the game.”

Everyone doing their job over the last several months has resulted in the Firebirds punching their ticket to ArenaBowl 33. Last weekend, Albany defeated Salina Liberty 80-59 in the semifinals.

“That's what we’ve preaching all season – do your eighth,” said Darius Prince, a wide receiver. “Go out there and make some plays. I want to bring the championship back to the Capital Region.”

Prince is one of several players with arena football championship pedigree on this team. He won ArenaBowl 30 with the Philadelphia Soul and National Arena League titles in 2021 and 2022 with Albany.

The 8-2 Firebirds earned the No. 2 seed for the postseason, and will now face top seed the Billings Outlaws for the AFL title.

“Don't let the moment be too high. Don’t let the moment be too low. Just treat it like another week. Don't make it a real big deal,” Prince said.

“A lot of credit to them. Obviously, they made it to the dance with us. So they're obviously a good team organization,” said Nick Haag, a linebacker who has also won a NAL championship with Albany. “But at the end of day, we just got to be ready to go and prepare.”

Albany and Billings faced off just a month ago in the regular season, with the Outlaws escaping with a 36-35 win. Ware is expecting to clashing styles once again.

“Billings is interesting,” Ware said. “They have a different kind of a game plan to slow the game down. They don't mind a low-scoring game. For us, we want to play an up tempo game and to score as many points as we can.”

This is Albany’s third trip to the ArenaBowl with the Firebirds taking home the championship in 1999 and the Empire winning the title in 2019.

“We're just ready to go,” Prince said. “Coaches put together a great game plan for us for the championship game. We just got to execute it. Looking forward to playing on Friday night.”

“Every team has that goal to make it here,” Haag said. “And at the end of the day, I'm very proud of our team, coaching staff and obviously the city for bringing us back to where we're supposed to be in the Capital Region.”

ArenaBowl 33 is set for 5:30 p.m. Friday at the American Dream Mall in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J.