Junior and Senior girls take the field for Atascadero High Powderpuff game 

– Last Friday, Junior and Senior high school girls turned the Greyhound football fans’ world upside down as they took the field for the annual Atascadero High School Powderpuff game. The girls had been training for weeks in preparation for the event, being coached by both AHS football coaches and varsity football players. Both teams’ vigorous training made for an entertaining and impressive game, however, in the end the Seniors came out on top scoring twenty-one over the Juniors’ six.

The Juniors were the first to take charge of the game as they rushed the ball up to the Seniors’ forty yard line after receiving the kickoff. However, they were soon taken down by the Seniors’ defense. The seniors then managed to climb up to the Juniors’ thirty five before they too were soon shut down. Immediately following the turnover, Juniors’ #14 Allison Andrade took the ball all the way to the end-zone in a sixty-five yard dash, scoring the Junior’s only touchdown of the night, score: 0-6. The seniors attempted to make up their lost ground before the end of the quarter, but the clock proved to be just faster than their offense. Unlike traditional football, the clock is almost always ticking during Powderpuff, only stopping for relatively obvious reasons such as failed passes, injuries, or time-outs.

The Seniors had little time with the ball before the Juniors successfully brought them down for a turnover, starting the second quarter.  Despite their offense struggling to make crucial connections, the Seniors’ defense seemed to continually get the better of the Juniors, at one point holding the Juniors’ offense nearly twenty yards from the line of scrimmage. With only seconds left in the half, Seniors’ #2 Hannah Flickenger received an impressive fifty-yard pass, raising the Seniors hopes of matching the Juniors’ lead before the end of the half. Unfortunately, they could not make lightning strike twice as the quarter ended with an incomplete pass to Flickenger.

The majority of the third quarter consisted of both teams mutually holding the ball near the fifty yard line. However, at the two-minute mark, Marina Garcia broke through the Juniors’ defense to score the Seniors’ first touchdown of the evening. The quarter ended with the close score: 7-6 Seniors.

Although the Juniors strove to recover the advantage they had held strong during the first half of the game, they were unable to overcome the Seniors apparent dominance in the final quarter. With less than two minutes of the quarter, the Seniors managed to clinch the win with two consecutive touchdowns. The first was the result of a tactically confusing play, in which the Juniors’ defense seemed to be fooled by the Seniors’ fake-out, giving Flickenger a wide open path into the end-zone. Finally, with only 13.6 seconds left in the game, the Seniors once again blasted through the Juniors’ defense for their final touchdown of the game. Even after their loss was evident, the Juniors made a valiant final pass, which ended up being intercepted by the Seniors’ #44 Makayla Fetzer.

Despite being nothing more than a one night event, the AHS Powderpuff game still proved to be engaging and full of spirit through its friendly (and even at times not-so-friendly) competition between the athletically talented Junior and Senior girls. Fans and families now look forward to next year for the girls to take the field once again.

About the author: News Staff

News staff of the A-Town Daily News wrote and edited this article from local contributors and press releases. Scott Brennan is the publisher of this newspaper and founder of Access Publishing. Connect with him on Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, or follow his blog. He can be reached at [email protected].