By Martin Paredes/reporter
Long touchdown passes proved the difference Oct. 9 in intramural flag football on South Campus.
The Blazers won 46-8 over the Cowboyz in game one as quarterback Daniel Land threw six touchdown passes and ran for another.
Alvin Taye helped his team set the tone early as he tipped a Matt Strickland pass intercepted by Alex Hall on the game’s first play. Taye also caught two mirror-image 80-yard touchdowns as a deep crossing pattern left him open both times at midfield before he ran the final 40 yards with ease.
The Cowboyz’ only points came on a Strickland 44-yard touchdown to Anthony White and a safety.
In the second game, a 33-18 victory for Nike over Balls Deep, Nike opened up the scoring as Kevin Bui found a wide-open Lloyd Hunter for 35 yards. Balls Deep then found the end zone as Tad Do completed to Kevin Van for a seven-yard touchdown on fourth down.
On Nike’s next possession, Bui found Quenten Radford, who ran a crisp deep post route that left him wide open in the right corner of the end zone for the 47-yard score. Balls Deep tied the game with another impressive drive finished off by a three-yard run from Do.
With the score tied, the game was turned on its head in the second half when Balls Deep wide receiver Daniel Do let a catchable ball slip through his hands, which was then easily intercepted by Dustin Weatherly.
Two plays later, Bui connected with Jaylin Harris for a 15-yard score, and Nike never lost the lead. Kevin Do scored the last touchdown for Balls Deep, but a Bui-to-Weatherly three-yard shovel pass score and Bui’s 11-yard run sealed the win.
After the game against Balls Deep, Bui exclaimed, “I stick to my word!” referring to his guarantee that Nike would win all its games by two touchdowns. “That’s all I was thinking about on that last drive.”
The day’s final game saw Balls Deep avoid its second loss of the day, beating the Spartans 31-29. Balls Deep had the ball to start the second half down 14-12, but they quickly took the lead in controversial fashion.
Quarterback Tad Do took off for about five yards before he lateraled the ball across the field to Kevin Do who then easily ran it for a 45-yard score. The Spartans argued that Tad Do took off running after his five-second shot clock elapsed, but the officials said he took off just before his time was up.
The Spartans had the ball down eight with under a minute left in the game. Chris Williams threw a jump ball to Chris Shunk, who came up with the catch near the sideline and then ran away from a Balls Deep defender who had slipped for a huge 50-yard touchdown.
The Spartans then attempted a three-point conversion to try for the win. Williams found pressure in his face and just got the ball away to Shawn Brown, who had a hand on the ball in the end zone but could not bring it in.
Two days earlier saw the closest game of the season, a woman making plays and the first forfeit.
Nike pulled away late and won 38-12 against a Spartan team without substitute players.
The second game was supposed to feature two of the league’s better teams, Blazers and Balls Deep, but thanks to the unforgiving local traffic, all but two Balls Deep players made it in time.
“Most of them had just gotten out of class earlier, and they all come from SE Campus,” league faculty director Amber Kavehkar said.
After no other Balls Deep players showed up by 3:45 p.m., the team was forced to forfeit and award the Blazers the win.
The final game between the Spartans and Cowboyz began as a four-on-four affair since some Spartans players had left and not returned in time for their scheduled 5:05 p.m. start time.
In the second half, Spartan Kawanda Porter was left wide open in the end zone and scored the first female touchdown of the season, worth nine points compared to the six awarded men.
After a quick Cowboyz score and a Spartans turnover on downs, the Cowboyz had the ball down 28-26 with less than two minutes left. Strickland went deep with one of his wide receivers running toward the end zone. The throw was slightly overthrown and gave Brown the opportunity to tip the ball with his left hand and then bring it in with his right for an interception inside his end zone.
A dump off to Williams saw him burst 80 yards for the score that iced the game, 34-26 in favor of the Spartans.
