A month into senior year, and the seniors and juniors faced off in an annual football game called Powder Puff. The seniors were excited to have Powder Puff back after two years of not being able to do it. In 2019 it was rained out, and in 2020 the pandemic hit, so it has been a while.  They had been preparing for this moment for two years. The juniors were more than ready to face off against the seniors, but could they win? 

Both juniors and seniors had practices under the lights. Coaches Louis Cicala, David Anderson, Scott Leuck, and Dom Sbarbaro led their team to victory through these practices. Junior coaches Matty Coyle, Nick Seretis, Thomas Benkovic, and Jake Falotico worked just as hard, but did not end up winning. When asked what their game plan was, Junior Coach Matty Coyle stated, “Go out there and win, we didn’t have a defense plan, but our offense was mostly trick plays.” Consequently, Dom Sbarbaro, Senior Coach, said, “Go out there and play our best,” which ended up being the winning strategy. 

Teachers had their own predictions of the outcome of this game. Mr. Mansfield predicted the score was the seniors in favor with eighteen points to juniors with twelve.  Mansfield has been refereeing  the Powder Puff game for four years now.  During his interview, he said he believed Gia Mandile was the player to watch, and added, “She is going to go off.” 

Ms. Johnson predicted the score to be seniors with twenty-four points to juniors with eighteen. Ms. J. is an original Powder Puff ref., and has been refereeing  since it started in 2014-2015. Powder Puff was created by Ms. J., Yavorski, and Lobue. 

Ms. Nakis predicted seniors twenty-eight to juniors sixteen. Mr. Hedges predicted seniors with thirty-five points and juniors with ten. 

Mr. Ledgerwood predicted in the seniors’ favor with seniors with forty-two points to juniors with fourteen. 

Ms. Murphy predicted the outcome was seniors with twenty-eight points and juniors with seventeen.  When asked if she thought the class of 2022 was at a disadvantage with missing Powder Puff last year she responded with, “I don’t think that they are at a disadvantage, and that they have a lot of natural talent.”

The final score of the game was 20-12 seniors win. Both teams came out to play but the seniors came out on top. Julia Elek had a key interception as well as Carli Sorvino with one touchdown and Gia Mandile with two touchdowns. Natalia Baron was a force on defense and all together the team was solid. For the juniors, although they lost, they put up a good fight. Kelty Manning had one touchdown, and Bobbi Morton had the other,  but the juniors could not contain the seniors’ offense. 

The girls football team needed cheerleaders to help support them throughout their game. The cheerleaders consisted of Joe Mancino, Anthony Paino, Thomas Trimble, Luke Rooney, Pat Brahm, Landon Frank, Anthony Sturm, and Ben Peare. Although there were a total of two practices, they were able to learn a lot and come up with an entire halftime routine, and learn sideline cheers. They cheered on the team as well as kept the crowd entertained. 

Senior Coach, Kiley Sweeney, said, “They looked great out there, and we were all super proud of them and all of the work they put into it… the dance looked awesome and they really entertained the crowd!” The boys were able to tumble, do a small stunt, and perform the entire dance. They really put themselves in the cheerleader’s shoes (and skirts) and did a great job filling them. 

Senior Coach, Lilly Gildea, said, “The practices were a great time, and they really picked up on a lot, and we are very proud of them.” The cheerleaders put themselves out there and did the best they could to help lead the seniors to victory.