Amidst delays, sophomores maintain winning streak in annual Falcon Puff Games

Sophomore Esha Verma snaps the football back as sophomore Samantha Timmons rushes forward.

The Falcon Puff Games are held annually in the springtime as an inter-grade football competition.

On April 17, the sophomores took on the seniors during the annual Falcon Puff competition with a 12-0 win, followed a day later by the freshmen upset against the juniors with an 8-0 win. The next day, the final championship was held between the underclassmen with a 14-0 sophomore victory, the first-ever back-to-back victory.

Photo by Bryan Zhao

The sophomore class celebrates after Sahaana Potti makes the second touchdown to solidify the sophomore lead.

To train teams from each grade level, members of the football team from each grade level hosted tutorial sessions to coach players.

In previous years, the upperclassmen often prevailed in the three-game series, where the seniors first took on the sophomores, then the juniors took on the freshmen. However, this year, both games resulted in an underclassman victory. Meeting in the final round, the sophomores beat the freshmen with a score of 12-0.

Photo by Bryan Zhao

Freshman center Sia Chowdri prepares to snap the football back to the quarterback.

“The last two years were great, considering we are still underclassmen,” sophomore head coach Anthony Tran said. “We have amazing players and coaches, so maintaining the four-year streak is in reach. We plan to make history.”

Photo by Bryan Zhao

Sophomore wide receiver Sasha Prasad dashes across the field with freshmen defenders trailing behind.

Despite the success of the event, the rally commission ran into some difficulties along the way. Due to unforeseen rainy weather, the event was pushed back to after spring break.

“Leadership had members at Redwood [Middle School] for an assembly, so some of our [Falcon Puff] coaches were gone,” rally head junior Angie Chen said. “To make sure all the classes were even, we decided to move it past spring break. Besides that, the weather was rainy and it was hard to host the games in that [weather].”

With the delayed dates, all the different class offices took advantage of the extra time to host scrimmages and practices. Some of the class offices spent countless hours planning for this activity.

“We have been working on offensive walkthroughs and defensive positioning,” freshmen Coach freshman Anson Hulme said. “Throughout every Blue Day tutorial, we have had a consistent turn-up to practice through the drills.”

Photo by Bryan Zhao

Freshmen coach Anson Hulme prepares to give his team a pep talk.

Overall, the games proceeded smoothly over the three days and the exciting upsets in the competition drew large crowds for the final match.

“The event was made possible through all the players, emcees, coaches and the Rally Commission working together to make this event possible,” Tran said. “I’m satisfied with the result and look forward to the next two years.”