In past years, Powderpuff has been played as flag football. This year, however, the rules changed mid game because too many people were pulling other players to the ground because their flags were tied, leading to excessive roughness throughout the game and possible injuries. Implementing this rule was controversial, but the game continued, ending with seniors taking the victory with a score of 21-7.

Many people felt anxious before the game started, and shortly into the game, the seniors scored their first touchdown, which didn’t help with the nerves, junior Emily Perone said. 

“I honestly was a little nervous. I knew that it would be a tough game going into it, but they scored within like the first two minutes, so that was really, really nerve wracking and like a mood changer for the entire junior team,” Perone said.

The top scorer from the game was senior Twanisha Davis, who scored 2 touchdowns throughout the course of the game, which she said made her ecstatic.

“I can say I was happy [with my performance], I [felt] good [and] I was excited,” Davis said.

The junior team ended up gaining one touchdown, which was scored by Perone during the first half of the game, hyping up the team.

“I was really excited. It felt really good, because my team was struggling, so we finally started to play a little better, and it was just this big celebration with all the girls in my grade. It was just a really cool experience,” Perone said.

However, the point was controversial, because some argue that she stepped slightly out of bounds before she reached the end zone. One of the junior coaches, junior Chase Barringer, was just glad that they got to keep the points.

“It was awesome [when Perone scored]. It probably shouldn’t have been a score, but it counted, so we were happy. We were gonna [get fired] up,”  Barringer said.

Another controversial part of the game was the change of rules from flag football to two touch football. This made it so that instead of pulling another player’s flag to down the player, the defender must touch the player with the ball with both of their hands at the same time. Officials made this change because so many people were attaching their flags to keep them from being pulled, which caused people to get pulled down by their flags, causing a risk of injury. Senior sponsor Allie Tunnicliff thought that this adjustment was for the best because it kept everyone safe.

“Honestly, I thought [the change] was necessary. The flags were getting out of control, and I was nervous that somebody was going to get hurt on both sides. It seemed like there [were] some people employing strategies to make their flags stay on their bodies a little bit better. But when you’re running full speed and pulling a flag that’s attached to someone, that could mean someone gets hurt. So I was glad that we took the proper steps in order to keep [people] safe,” Tunnicliff said.

Though many of the adults decided the new rule was a good idea, senior coach Aidan Amy said that it made playing the game a lot harder, because none of the players had a very good chance getting to the endzone, but it also was getting slightly dangerous for the girls.

“I think that’s a horrible rule change, and I hope that they don’t implement that in years to come, because that means that you can’t run the ball, and that’s pretty much the only way that they can score. So, that was kind of stupid, but it was getting a little aggressive out there,” Amy said

Many players also felt that it wasn’t a very good rule because it made the game a lot more difficult to play.

“It was a really weird rule because it was a lot harder to even get 10 feet, [and] you couldn’t really move as much, because all they had to do was touch you. So I think that it was kind of frustrating,” Perone said.

Amy said that the change didn’t actually benefit the game because it made playing difficult for everyone.

“I think it made the game much worse, because if you’re only having to touch with two hands, then it’s much harder for people to make moves [and] it’s a lot easier for the defense to stop the offense,” Amy said

This rule change was the first time that Powderpuff has ever not been flag football, and it’s unknown whether or not it will be one that will continue for years to come.