Associated Students hosted “Sonoma Super Bowl” this past Fri. to give students the opportunity to compete in a six on six flag football tournament. Students who didn’t play, watched on the sideline and got to enjoy burgers along with some snacks that were provided by the Culinary Services. The event lasted from 1-4 p.m.
Ongoing Events Director, Stephania Veziris, helped put together this event and said, “I wanted to put this event on because I felt that football brings a different type of school spirit on to campus that most students miss, and this was a way to bring the campus together while allowing students to participate and have a good time.”Associated Students also went around the field asking students to take a survey asking them questions like “How did you hear about this event? and “Do you want to see more events like this?”
There were three games played, each game lasting an hour and also having a break at the halfway mark. Each touchdown was six points, but there weren’t any field goal posts, so instead, the teams would go for the two point conversion each time. Flag Football has the same rules as football, the only difference is that there is not any tackling allowed.
It was sunny and warm for the first game which started at 1 p.m. Students were slowly beginning to show up while the first game was going on. Both the blue and yellow team were playing at the same level, ending the first half in a tie. During the last two minutes of the second half, the blue team was able to score a touchdown that gave them an eight point lead. With a minute left the yellow team threw an interception, and the blue team was able to score again to take a 16 point lead. The blue team won the first game.
Game two of the day started at 2 p.m., and both the yellow and blue team started off with back to back touchdowns–both teams had the offense rolling. More students began to show up in the stands, and the yellow team had a large crowd on the sidelines with loud chants. The yellow team had tons of fan support as they began taking over the game. By the end of the first half, the yellow team was winning 20-8, with the blue team struggling to find rhythm in their defense and offense. The blue team started the second half of the game with a touchdown to cut their deficit to 20-16, but that wouldn’t stop the yellow team as they would go on to win 44-22.
Senior Baltazar Pullido shared his thoughts of the whole event. “It sucks that we weren’t able to win, but I had an incredible amount of fun. This tournament is definitely something that the school should make into a regular thing every semester,” said Pullido.
Since the yellow team had won game two, they stayed on the field to play game three. Game three was a lot closer than the prior one, as the blue team was able to score a touchdown quickly to make the game 8-0 early on. The yellow team would respond with a touchdown of their own off a deep pass that was caught in the endzone making it 8-8. Both teams stayed consistent with their offense and by the end of the first half, the score was tied 21-21. The game stayed closed until the last five minutes of the game, when the yellow team scored to take the lead 29-21. The yellow team threw an interception, were stopped, and the blue team was able to get the ball to score. The yellow team would go on to score again to take an eight point lead. With a minute and 30 seconds left, the blue team was able to score, but fell short after not being able to score the extra point, and the yellow team won 55-53.
One of the players of the blue team, Junior AIdan Kelleher said, “It was a great tournament they ran today and it had a good turn out. It is definitely something they should look into having more often if they have the resources and they set up the location very well.”
Ultimately it was a fun event for all that attended. Although Sonoma State hasn’t had a football team since the early 70s, there was still a chance to get out there and play. Students still got to have that football spirit.
