A fight to the finish
The Little Saints of the USU men’s intramural flag football evening league defeated SWT of the afternoon league in the championship game 34-32 Thursday night at Romney Stadium.
The game saw four lead changes in the final four minutes and the winning touchdown was scored with 19 seconds remaining on a pass play to Dylan Olsen.
Olsen caught the pass under coverage in the end zone, but SWT players argued the call, saying he dropped the ball. Referees discussed the play and ruled a touchdown.
“I didn’t think he caught it,” SWT player Mark Schmidt said. “I was right next to the ref and I didn’t see it, so I don’t’ know how the ref. saw it.”
Olsen said, “I thought I caught it. I caught it and I was coming face down, so the ball hit the ground when my chest hit it, but I had the ball in my arms before I hit the ground.”
Schmidt scored a touchdown with 44 seconds left in the game to put SWT ahead 32-28.
Phil Stevens returned the ensuing kickoff and tossed a lateral pass to Jared Lowe who took the football to the 1-yard line. Quarterback Lowe was then sacked for a loss to set up the game-winning second down play.
“It was great,” Lowe said. “Dylan Olsen made a spectacular catch.”
With the win, the Little Saints advance to an extramural competition. They will meet with two UVSC intramural teams and two Weber State intramural teams at UVSC on Saturday.
Utah State participated in extramurals years ago with teams from WSU, Utah, Snow College, Southern Utah University and Dixie State.
“They quit doing that about six or seven years ago,” Scott Wamsley, intramural director, said. “All of us intramural directors got together and decided that we needed to start that up again because … it gives the schools bragging rights.”
The winner of the competition at UVSC will take home a traveling trophy, which they will keep for a year and bring to the same tournament next year. Wamsley said the intramural directors are trying to set up a similar extramural competition for basketball.
The champions of the co-ed and women’s leagues were also crowned Thursday. The Killers eliminated Invictus in 36-24 to capture the co-ed championship and the Killer Squirrels defeated the Gators 32-12 in the girls’ final.
-benwalker@cc.usu.edu