Orange Crush

Last night I watched some highly entertaining football - all the while freezing my buns off sitting on icy cold bleachers. It was the annual Powder Puff game. In Powder Puff, the players are girls, teams are by class level, and the game is flag football played in 10 minute halves where the clock is stopped after any play that lasts less than one minute.

Game One is Seniors v. Freshmen.  And the Seniors always win.  Last night did not disappoint in that respect. Seniors won 7-0. That's just the way it always is.

Game Two is Juniors v. Sophomores. And my girls are Juniors.
 

Here's the "Orange Crush" Junior team just before sunset gathered outside the stadium.  DH was the photographer last night and this light (while beautiful and glowy) made it very hard to get an accurate color of the shirts. They are orange - but a little on the light side of orange.

Here's one squad of the Orange Crush team discussing plays before Game Two. Under the stadium lights, the color still isn't right. But check out those fantastic striped socks our girls are wearing! Aren't they adorable?

Game Two between the Juniors and Sophomores was tight and fiercely fought, but Juniors took it in the end with a score of 13-7.  And that's the way it should be.

Game Three is played between the winners of the first two games. It is almost always Seniors v. Juniors. And the Seniors always win. It's tradition. Okay, honestly, it is that Game Three is rigged in favor of the Seniors. The officials call a lot of fouls against the opposing team and make sure there is a lot of backward movement on the field (or forward movement for the Seniors). That's just the way it always is.

Last year as Sophomores our girls beat the Juniors and played the outgoing Seniors in Game Three. They weren't lacking in spirit or the will to win. They were up against the foul calls and backward movement on the field. They lost. But, that's just the way it always is.

Going into Game Three, our girls were playing the same team they had beat last year. Which made things interesting. Game Three was rousing with lots of good plays. The Juniors failed to score after having possession for the first seven minutes and making it all the way to about the two yard line.

The Seniors fought back but were stopped short of their goal line by the Juniors. The first half ended in a score of zero to zero. One Junior was carried off the field after she landed wrong and broke her foot in two places. Keep in mind, this is FLAG football - there is no tackling. But dang, these young ladies are agressive!

In the second half, the Juniors scored early with a long run down the field. The Seniors came back with a long run of their own and scored, but the Juniors prevented them from making the conversion point. So the score was 6-7 with Juniors leading. Then ensued multitudes of absurd calls by the officials, multiple 15 yard penalties that put the Seniors right up to their own goal line, but they couldn't score. In their final attempts, hand-offs were dropped, passes were fumbled. With mere seconds left on the clock, the Juniors gained possession and took a knee. The Juniors won!  Every once in a while it is not just the way it always is.


Here are the Juniors celebrating their victory. Our girls are buried in the midst of that Orange Crush. 

One other thing about Powder Puff - the guys are the cheerleaders. The Junior men showed up bare chested, covered in orange paint. They roared and hollered and ran around the stadium. They blew plastic versions of those super-annoying World Cup Soccer horns. When the Juniors scored, they ran into the end zone and did push-ups.

They had the largest group of cheerleaders on the field. And they were highly entertaining. If there was an award for Spirit, the young men of the Junior class definitely would have won last night as well. As a parent, I was so grateful to see that my girls are part of a class with such a high participation level and so much spirit. Oh, and the fact that they won? Almost made it worth freezing my buns!