They are headed for ArenaBowl XXII after beating the Cleveland Gladiators, 70-35, for the Arena Football League's National Conference championship yesterday at the Wachovia Center.

As the crowd of 13,389 celebrated, players hugged fans, laughed, and even drenched coach Bret Munsey with a cooler of Powerade to celebrate the biggest victory of the five-year-old franchise.

The Soul (15-3), who set a postseason franchise record for points, will face defending champion San Jose in ArenaBowl XXII on July 27 in New Orleans. The SaberCats defeated the Grand Rapids Rampage, 81-55, yesterday for the American Conference title.

The 76ers, in 1983, are Philadelphia's last major pro team to win a world championship.

"This is very special" to the city, said defensive back Eddie Moten, named the defensive player of the game after an 11-tackle, two-interception performance. "It's special to me, as well. I want to be a part of the team that brings [another] championship to the City of Philadelphia. It's just an unbelievable feeling right now."

In their previous meeting with Cleveland (11-8) June 14, the Soul pulled out a 62-61 squeaker. This one was a good old-fashioned woodshed deal.

The Soul dominated in all three phases of the game: offense, defense and special teams.

"I just felt like our guys, all week, prepared themselves to win a championship game," Munsey said. "And that's what we did. We came out, and defense played well. Special teams [dominated] and the offense was stopped one time. So we got everybody playing at a high level."

Dominating from the start, the Soul scored on 10 of 11 possessions and had 209 yards of offense.

Quarterback Matt D'Orazio showed why he was named player of the year by the AFL Writers Association. The 6-foot-4, 230-pounder completed 17 of 25 passes for 184 yards and eight touchdowns and was named the offensive player of the game.

Wideout Larry Brackins benefited the most from D'Orazio's crisp passes. Brackins caught a team-high seven passes for 92 yards and three scores. His performance moved him into first place on the team's all-time postseason receptions (21) and receiving yards (264) lists.

The Moten-led defense had seven defensive stops on Cleveland's 12 possessions.

Withering under the Soul's pressure, Gladiators quarterback Raymond Philyaw had his worst performance of the postseason. He finished 25 of 49 for 303 yards and four touchdowns, with two interceptions and a fumble. Philyaw had only eight incompletions during the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The Soul's special teams were highlighted by Mike Brown's 57-yard, third-quarter kickoff return for a touchdown. The speedster hurdled Cleveland kicker Jason Bell at the Soul 20-yard line. Brown, who also had five tackles, was named Ironman of the game.

It didn't take long to realize this team was headed to the ArenaBowl.

Cleveland was unable to stop much of what the Soul did. And very little of what the Gladiators tried worked.

Thanks to D'Orazio's four first-half TD passes, the Soul took a 35-21 lead.

The lead grew to 49-28 after Brown scored on a kickoff return with 9 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The Soul never looked back.

See more photos from the game at http://go.philly.com/photos.