Solid White Tuna wins
Solid White Tuna doesn’t stink.
Actually, they’re pretty good. And with a 37-20 win over the White Guys Monday, last year’s intramural flag football runners-up are looking to go all the way this time around.
“We were undefeated until the last game,” team member Matt Kimber said. “The other team had blown out everyone else by, like, 40 points, but we played them close.”
“We actually scored more touchdowns than they did,” Adam Fuchs said. “They just converted more extra-points.”
Solid White Tuna receiver Jake Lucas said the team derived its name from the label on a can of tuna fish, but Lucas said he wasn’t sure why, or which brand.
“I don’t know why we chose it,” Lucas said. “The mind of [quarterback Brock Hedberg] is responsible for that one.”
The team said it plays flag football for the right reasons – women, glory and because they aren’t good enough to play tackle football.
“Why do we play flag football?” Lucas asks his teammates.
“By the rules,” Fuchs says.
“By the rules?” Lucas says laughing.
“Oh, I thought you said ‘how,'” Fuchs says. His teammates laugh. “Because of the ladies.”
“And to get scouts and coaches out to watch us,” Kimber says.
Attendance for Monday’s game was five – three female, two male, no scouts and no coaches.
With only minutes remaining in the game, Solid White Tuna found itself in a tough situation, being backed down toward its opponent’s endzone and clinging to a slight advantage.
But Solid White’s experienced defense buckled down and kept the White Guy offensive from finding the endzone, allowing time to run out.
“They’ve been playing together for a while,” White Guy Blake Petersen said. “They have plays named ‘X’ and ‘Squirrel’.”
Tim Petersen, White Guy and senior from Bancroft, Idaho, said his squad was undermanned, but is looking forward to bouncing back next week.
“Only two of our players have ever played [flag football] before,” Tim Petersen said, “but I think we’re getting the hang of it now.”
While experience may be the reason for Solid White Tuna’s success, team member Shaun Kjar said there could be another factor in its winning equation.
“My shoelaces are made from chainsaw rope,” Kjar said. “So, take that for what it’s worth.”
The intramural flag football season lasts seven weeks, including a five week regular season and a two week playoff period.
Major differences between the flag and tackle games are the non-existance of fumbles in flag, as well as the ability to make two forward laterals per play.
Solide White Tuna will face off with the Free Agent A team next, while the White Guys take the field against the Huggy Bears. Both games start at 3:30 p.m. Monday on the HPER field.
Other flag football results:
The Free Agent A team beat the Huggy Bears. The Mullets beat the Pig Skin Pulverizers.
Ed’s Collecitables beat LRFD and the Rowdy Crowd beat the Free Agent B team.
-acf@cc.usu.edu