By Martin Paredes/reporter
South’s intramural flag football championship game saw Nike cap off its undefeated season after a hard-fought 26-12 victory over the Blazers Oct. 23.
Emotions were at an all-time high, and tempers ran rampant as the two teams gave their all.
Nike jumped ahead 13-0 as quarterback Kevin Bui scored two impressive rushing touchdowns. One saw him dance past three Blazers on his way to a 43-yard score, and the other came on a fourth-down run from the one where Bui won a foot race to the left sideline and extended the ball past the goal line.
On the following conversion, Lloyd Hunter made the catch of the day as he beat his man to the left sideline and impressively caught the ball with one hand all the while having the presence of mind to drag both feet inbounds for the hardest-earned point of the season.
The Blazers then drove the length of the field thanks to big catches from Juan Juanes and Alvin Taye. From one yard out, quarterback Alex Hall rolled to the left, which sucked up the Nike defense and allowed him to throw a shovel pass to a wide-open Ferdinand Aguwa for the fourth-down score.
The Blazers had the ball to start the second half down 13-6, but the Nike defense stepped up as a fourth-down Hall pass was intercepted by Bui at the Nike four-yard line.
The Blazers defense did well to force a fourth down from the Nike 22-yard line, but Bui blazed past his spy and wisely extended the ball past the first-down marker before having his flag stripped.
On the next play, Hieu Thai ran a go route down to the Blazers five-yard line where he leaped, snagged the ball at its apex and hung on as he fell to the ground.
Hunter finished the drive off as he caught a five-yard touchdown on the next play, and the one-point conversion after that to make the score 20-6 Nike.
The Blazers still had life as Tyrell Dockery caught a 60-yard jump ball before going out of bounds and then found himself open on a crossing pattern in the heart of Nike’s defense for a 20-yard touchdown. A failed two-point conversion meant that the Blazers were still down 20-12.
The Blazers then finally got the turnover they so desperately needed as Jaylin Harris came up one yard short of the first down on a fourth-down catch. One play later, Hall found a wide-open Dustin Weatherly who wasted little time galloping for the 60-yard score.
Unfortunately for the Blazers, Weatherly is a Nike player, and Hall threw it right to him. That play sealed the Blazers’ fate as time soon expired, and Nike was dubbed champions.
Many Nike players reflected on their perfect tournament, and one gave credit to their quarterback.
“Kevin is a leader, and he has a great arm … Bui gets MVP in my opinion,” Radford said.
Bui, however, felt the defense deserved the credit.
“We had Dustin, Quenten and Lac all get some very critical interceptions in the playoffs. But I also got to give Shang [Bou] our rusher props,” Bui said. “Rushing is a very hard position to play, and he did very well for us all season.”
Radford was adamant that the team members’ meshing ultimately led to their dominance.
“The chemistry got better each game, and eventually we were rolling out a squad that couldn’t be stopped,” he said.
Bui reflected on some of the adversity Nike overcame to win the campus championship.
“Our first playoff game vs. the Spartans was brutal due to the fact I threw four interceptions,” Bui said. “Their team was on point that game and made it hard for us, but my team kept their heads high and kept believing even after being down 20-0 at one point.”
