After a week of training and practicing in the grueling rain, the football players of last Saturday’s football game awoke to a beautiful day. Around 5:30 p.m., they put on their uniforms and ran onto Appenzeller field.
This game was different from Guilford’s typical Saturday night football game, however, in that the players wore flags. The players were women and it was the Powder puff game.
The game was originally scheduled for Friday evening, but was moved to Saturday due to the weather. The decision paid off, with beautiful game-day conditions.
“The practices were interesting because it was hard to juggle practices around schedules, and we had a bunch of rain and stuff,” said Martin Brown, a sophomore and head coach of the underclasswomen team.
The game started out as an offensive fest between the upperclasswomen and the underclasswomen. The upperclasswomen scored first, only to be the matched by their underclass rivals. The dueling went back and forth with upperclasswomen scoring then the underclasswomen matching them. At halftime the score was 21-21, leading many fans to believe it would be a battle of offense. But as the game progressed, it became a defensive fight.
Into the second half, both sides had many valiant offensive efforts, but all ending in turnovers and no points. Penalties slowed the game down and didn’t help the offenses’ chances. There was some arguing of calls by the coaches but nothing major.
“I hope it was a fair game,” said Dock Ragland, senior and referee of the game.
The fourth quarter saw both teams going deep on long passes, with little developing until one pass was caught in the end zone. It was no touchdown, however. It ended up in the hands of first-year Amanda Haungs, playing safety, who turned the tide with her interception.
“That pick at the end zone, that was the game-changing performance because it gave us the ball back and allowed us to score,” Brown said.
The underclasswomen scored on the next possession, putting the score at 28-21 in their favor. The upperclasswomen had one more chance to even the score.
Their final possession was a race against time and a close one, with penalties and a stopped clock for most of it. Finally, the upperclasswomen threw up a prayer near the goal line, only to be picked off again to put the game to rest. In what started out as an offensive onslaught and ended up a defensive fight, the underclasswomen pulled off the 28-21 upset.
“I feel as though we played very well and we were able to use our strength to beat them,” said Hannah Merrell, a first-year who scored an early touchdown for the underclasswomen.
Fans came in scattered groups to the view game. Although the stands weren’t filled, the game was a success, with lots of scoring and some big plays
“It was a great game, a great game by both sides,” Brown said.