Freshmen Stun Upperclassmen in Homecoming Flag Football Game

The team of Penn College upperclassmen was confident and ready for Wednesday's Homecoming flag football game against its first-year challengers. The problem? So were the new kids, who forced an overtime in the waning minutes and ultimately won 21-14. The game started off well for the freshmen as Khalil Booker made a couple of nice moves that caught the upperclassmen off-guard, according to a recap by Jeremy R. Bottorf, coordinator of intramural sports and campus recreation. Only two minutes into the game, Booker found the end zone on a run that stunned the upperclassmen and put the freshmen up 7-0. The upperclassmen shook off the score and made a couple of impressive plays, as well, and quarterback Joe Falkowski connected with Patrick Irick in the end zone to tie the score with two minutes left in the first quarter. With both teamsscoring on their first possessions, the game looked to be a shootout ... but ended up being anything but. Each squad turned over the ball on its next possession and, for most of the second and third quarters, moved downfield only for their drives to stall. The upperclassmen got close at the end of the third quarter and, at the start of the fourth, Falkowski scored on a quarterback keeper to give the upperclassmen a 14-7 lead with eight minutes remaining. The freshmen who were eager to get the ball back got a lucky break when the upperclassmen kicked it out of bounds, allowing them to start at midfield. Dylan Bennett juked his way through a lengthy run, eluding upperclassmen and taking his team into the red zone. On the next play, Bennett slipped into the end zone to tie the game at 14 with two minutes remaining. Unfazed and hoping to start a winning drive, the upperclassmen had help from the opposition: The freshmen returned the favor and kicked the ball out of bounds, giving the upperclassmen midfield position with a minute remaining in regulation. Falkowski was set to deliver a bomb downfield to a wide-open receiver when, out of nowhere, Hunter Goodhart intercepted the pass and ran down the sideline until he was forced out of bounds in upperclassmen territory. Unfortunately for the freshmen, they could not cash in on the great field position and the game went into overtime. The upperclassmen won the toss and decided to take the ball. Falkowski looked to avenge his picked-off pass, but, on the first play of overtime, Jalile Best made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch for an interception. Back in control of the ball, the freshmen only needed to move it one yard to win the game. The upperclassmen, not out of it, were ready to prevail on defense to force another overtime. The freshmen were stopped in the backfield for a one-yard loss on each of the first two downs. On third down, the freshmen got one yard back on a running play that was once again stuffed by the defense. It wasn’t until fourth down that the freshmen took to the line of scrimmage and went up knowing they had to gain at least one yard to force another overtime or two yards to win the game. Needing to gain one yard to extend the game or two yards to win it, the freshmen called timeout before returning to the line determined to end the game on fourth down. Too eager to stop the run, the upperclassmen jumped offside thanks to a "hard count" that brought the defense across the line of scrimmage, giving the freshmen five yards and victory.