Washington Panthers win flag championship
Published 6:22 pm Saturday, November 19, 2016
- Washington Panthers running back Antwone Parker scores the game-winning touchdown in Saturday’s championship. (Kai Jones)
With 48 seconds left in the game, the Washington Panthers and the Washington Patriots were tied at 0-0 in the flag-football championship game. The Panthers handed it off to Antwone Parker at the 8-yard line, and the impressively speedy youngster took it in to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead — and ultimately the game.
Neither team could get anything going on offense as both defenses utilized their speed to wipe out big plays.
The touchdown by the Panthers was set up by their previous drive. After getting good field position, the Panthers used big runs by Jahcere Collins, Keshon Tucker, and Parker to make it to inside the 10. The Panthers couldn’t punch it into the end zone after three plays. At the 3-yard line, the Panthers ran it again and were stopped again.
The Panthers forced the Patriots to give the ball back with a little under four minutes left. After a couple of runs and a penalty on third down, the Panthers were right back inside the 10-yard line. After a couple of plays, the Panthers decided to hand it off to their best back in Parker, and he scored the only touchdown of the game.
Parker finished with 48 yards.
Coaches expected the game to be close as the two teams played earlier in the season, with the Panthers winning 8-0.
“This game was probably the biggest one, because we had barely beat this team in the regular season,” head coach Billy Respass Jr. said. “They were a very good game.”
The Panthers finished as the regular season champions, as well as the Super Bowl champions. Respass said he expected this outcome from the beginning of this season.
“This was the end result that we wanted, we wanted to win the Super Bowl,” Respass said. “For the first couple of games, we scored a lot of points, didn’t have much scored on us, and we knew then that we had a really fast team. Through the speed, I knew we would be where we’re at.”
The Patriots played a great game overall. They were led by Darius Dills and David Freeman on the ground. Many of the Patriots’ fans griped over the fact there appeared to be movement on the offensive line on the play Parker scored.
The Patriots had a shot at the end. With 28 seconds left, they started driving with the help of multiple penalties by the Panthers. The penalties gave the Patriots two untimed plays at the end of the game, the final play coming on the 27, where the Panthers decided to pull the flag of the ball carrier instead of tackling.