by Ryan Chevalier

Suffolk University held its first annual evens and odds flag football game in the Boston Common Saturday morning.

The event was part of the five day Suffolk University Homecoming extravaganza. Before the game, both teams got riled up for the big game in their own huddles. The teams were juniors and freshmen (gold team and evens) versus seniors and sophomores (blue team and odds). Playing as a senior, in my first homecoming football game, I witnessed the battle about to begin. In that huddle, seniors vowed not to let the freshmen and junior team win. Little did we know, we were in for a surprise.

The game started with both offenses firing on all cylinders, and the blue team drove the ball down the field on their first possession to take a 6-0 lead.

Minutes later, the gold team took the ball downfield and scored on a breakaway 20-yard run to tie the game. The game remained close and with time running down before halftime, the seniors and sophomores were threatening to score following an interception setting up good field position. This is when my moment came.

The blue team and I had set up a play that when we each tap our head before the snap, it meant, “go deep.” On fourth down, the quarterback tapped his head at the line of scrimmage; I knew the ball was coming to me.

The ball snapped, I looked back to see his arm get hit by a blitzing player on the gold team as he released a quickly dying ball to the end zone. I raced to the ball, and made a leaping catch for the score.

I was beyond pumped as the crowd went wild. After the gold team failed to score, we went into halftime leading by a touchdown.

The second half consisted of intense competition with a nail-biting ending. The junior and freshmen team, throughout the game, used a strategic hurry-up offense and dump-off passes on their attack.

The blue team compiled a number of long passes, and runs by freshman for scores.

In a wacky ending to the game, the gold team was up 36-28 and had the ball in their possession on their own one-yard line. The gold team quarterback was sacked for a safety making the score 36-30 with less than a minute left. The blue team had the whole field to go, with a chance to tie or win the game, but a 10-yard throw toward the sideline was picked off and brought home for a touchdown to wrap up the homecoming game.

The gold team was ecstatic to win the game 42-30, and granted bragging rights, at least until next year.