Friday Night Football - Week 14 Recap

EDITORS NOTE: There will be a complete sports recap from Friday & Saturday after the conclusion of Port Royal Speedway's Saturday night program.

There is no better treat than attending a football game in May. And what a game it was.

Riley Shertzer, a teacher at JHS was searching for a fundraiser to benefit the Student Council. She came up with a powder puff football game and not to confuse sports here, she hit a home run with that idea.

The prospects of having a football game in May appealed to everyone and they all jumped on board to help out. There would be two teams, red vs. blue. They would be coached by a combination of Juniata Football coaches and Juniata Football players. Officials would also be a combination of players and coaches from Juniata Football.

It would be 8 on 8 with two stay at home lineman and 6 eligible pass receivers. They would play four 8 minute quarters. It would be flag football. Everything else was governed by regular high school football rules.

Juniata County Radio was their to broadcast the game with Sports Director Brad Strawser calling the game.

And the game itself….fantastic. It was everything you could want in a game. There was a lot of offense, but not a lot of points on the board. There was also good defense played. And there was actually a field goal scored. And there was drama. The game was decided was an 88 yard pick six by Regan Lowery with under four minutes to play. She leaped to

intercept the pass on the 12 yard line near the visitors sideline. She rapidly made her way across the field to the home sideline and headed up field. Near the 40 yard line she make a text book cut back move and raced toward the goal line and scored back near the visitors sideline.

Now when you start adding up how far she ran and you realize a football field is 53 yards wide, the number is staggering. 88 yards credited for the touchdown. Moving from the visitors side line to the home sideline, add 45 yards. Then with the cut back right along the home sideline, she ran diagonally and crossed the goal line approximately 15 yards from the visitor sideline, add 38 yards. Not even allowing for some bobbing and weaving she did along the way, I would conservative estimate she covered approximately 170 yards with her game winning pick six.

The event was a win-win for everyone involved. After the game I spoke to Riley and told her this has to be an annual event and she basically replied “we’re working on it”. I do have one small complaint. There were no lines painted on the field and that required the officials to guess where the ball should be placed and if a first down was recorded. But other than that, everything was great.

Finally to my friends at Juniata County Radio…save me a seat in the press box for the second annual powder puff football game because I KNOW you guys will be there to broadcast it!

And to you football fans who didn’t attend…don’t make that mistake next time. You cannot possibly find better entertainment for a $ 2.00 admission fee…..I can’t wait for the next one.