by Cassidy Pazyniak, Staff Writer
It’s not your cliché high school football game.
Despite the glaring lights and cheerleaders, any observant fan will notice more
than a few differing aspects to this American pastime. Instead of pad-wearing
boys, you’d see face-painted girls. Replacing tackles would be grabs at
flags, and the rivalry was not between schools but, rather, grades. It was the
annual Powder Puff game where red seniors faced off against the blue juniors.
Despite it being the junior's first game, as Kelly Duffy warned, “We’ve
been thinking about this since eighth grade. We look strong; we’re prepared
and very determined.” Helping to keep them focused and bonded, the “blue”
girls had come up with more than a few mottos at practices, including the one
present on their t-shirts, "Can't Touch This!" Helping to lead the
girls were coaches Jeff "Slick" Javorek, Ryan "Cougar" Widing,
Billy “Maverick” Sonnie, Kevin "Ski” Gniazdowski, Ben
"B Johns" Johnson, and Greg "Balz" Balzano. The coaches
had confidence saying, “The girls are really dedicated.” Besides
each other, the coaches could also have depended on their junior captains, Emily
" Capt. Tubs" Vesbach (cheerleading), Maureen "Capt. Mo Money"
Mooney (volleyball), Alex "Capt. Underpants" Cowper (soccer), Betsy
"Capt. Bootsy" Rust (tennis), and Amy "Capt. Amerz" Erzen
(cross- country).
In addition to the proper guidance, the junior girls’ spirits remained
high thanks to the cheering of Ben "1/2 man 1/2 amazing” Zoldan,
John “Fast J” Fairfield, Jim "Texas Dolly" Difranco, David
“Goose” Giarrizzo, Mike "HTML ASP ACT SAT" Kaminski, and
Brady "The Mother of Motherboards" Burkle. These males in skirts put
on a hilarious show at the Monday pep rally, performing the famous dance from
the movie, Old School.
After getting pumped up at the rally, the girls were off to Toni "Cubba-Cubba"
and Angela "Smangie" Campanella's house to paint faces, eat, and share
in a good time. Once all hair had been dyed, and not a piece of pizza was left,
the juniors headed to the school. Despite the freezing rain, the girls were
out a half an hour before game time. The weather had no affect on their spirits,
though, because as the beginning whistle blared, the juniors could be heard
screaming their cheer.
The first two quarters started out rough with their offensive play, pole cat,
not working as planned. The defense tried to remain strong with contributions
made by Devon "Devy" Kellerhall, and Emily " Capt. Tubs"
Vesbach. Unfortunately, the blue girls allowed a touchdown and two-point conversion
to end the half down 8-0.
Coming back onto the field renewed, the junior's, nonetheless, allowed another
touchdown to be scored. The blue's offense and defense tried to remain strong
and continued to fight back. To bring the juniors back in the game, quarterback
Lauren "Sleepy Lou" Koenig, scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion.
After the half, as Jackie "Jaks" Kodrich said, "We put up a tough
fight.” Unfortunately, not tough enough. As the last minute ticked off
the clock, chaos occurred and time ran out without the juniors scoring again.
Walking off the field with their heads held high (and their hands freezing)
the junior girls had to agree it had been a fun experience. An experience that
will help lead them to victory next year!
