On the night of Sep. 20, 2023, something big happened. It was totally unexpected. The class of 2026 won the powderpuff game by one kick. This kick was made by none other than sophomore Adysen Young.

Before getting into all of that, it is best to understand exactly what powderpuff is. The powderpuff games are basically games of girls flag football. The rules state that tackling is prohibited. Students should not be intentionally touching the ball carrier in any way, besides pulling their flags that they have buckled at the waist. This is the biggest rule that people tend to break.

Going back to Adysen Young’s kick, it was to determine the final point of the final game, and you’d expect that anyone with that kind of opportunity would feel the pressure, but not her. “I just kicked it and hoped for the best, and I guess it went in, so I guess that’s great,” said Young. The crowd was shocked. Looking back at the footage, you can see that the sophomores were jumping up and down. They were very excited. “The reaction there was good,” said Young.

“You know, when we were there playing against the seniors, I didn’t think we were gonna match up well ’cause of the rumors,” said Young. This was true for many of the players. There were supposedly many rumors going around saying that it was “rigged.” The rumors said it was rigged to where the seniors and juniors were bound to win the two games. But the sophomores beat both of those teams. Unfortunately, the game sparked lots of controversy.

“No, I guess we all just played really good, and we all just have a really good bond on the team,” said Young when confronted about some cheating accusations.

That is just one opinion. On the other side of this discussion, some students, like junior Adrianna Gonzalez, believe that the sophomores did in fact cheat.

“I saw them trip one of the girls. They were grabbing people…someone has bruises from one of the sophomores..another claimed that one of them bit her…they were being really rough and tackling people…which we’re not supposed to do,” said Gonzalez. The thing with flag football is that it is not tackle, so things like this shouldn’t be happening. Unfortunately, there is no proof that either side is true besides the eyes of the players and the crowd. “Even the parents were calling out that they cheated,” Gonzalez said.

Players also claim that the referees were unfair. “There was one time when they didn’t get the ball quite to the last couple of yards. And I told the ref they didn’t make it all the way there. And he said you’ll be fine like he knew,” said Gonzalez. Again, there isn’t much physical evidence of these things happening.

To make a long story short, the sophomores won the 2023 Powderpuff Game. They won but with the cost of accusations of cheating. Maybe the juniors will find redemption in next year’s game.