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October 12, 2007 > Sports > Brown maintains top spot in Powderpuff with win over Sid

Brown maintains top spot in Powderpuff with win over Sid

By Kushagra Shrinath | Thresher staff

With an impenetrable defense and a receiving corps that looks like it was born for the gridiron, Brown (4-1) came away with a well-deserved 14-6 win over Sid Richardson (2-3) to reaffirm their position at the top of the league standings in last Saturday’s Powderpuff Game of the Week.

The first half of this much-anticipated matchup was a defensive struggle. Brown’s defense was particularly stingy, forcing Sid to four straight three-and-outs and limiting them to minus seven yards of total offense.

“They say defense wins championships,” Brown sophomore cornerback/wide receiver Mary Chapman said. “We were really excited for this game and we knew that defense would be a big part of it … we had been working on it all week at practice.”

After an early stalemate, Brown was able to come up with a big play in the middle of the first quarter. Facing a third and seven near midfield, sophomore Jackie Ammons flew past the Sid secondary, caught a pass over the top from junior quarterback Tori Gascoyne and raced to the end zone to give Brown an early 7-0 lead.

With under two minutes left in the half, Sid appeared to even the score when junior cornerback Marisa Gonzalez returned a Gascoyne interception 64 yards for a touchdown. However, the two offsetting penalties — roughing the passer on Sid and an illegal block on Brown — nullified the play, allowing Brown to enter the half with a 7-0 lead.

Brown came out strong in the second half, putting together an eight-play, 65-yard drive that ended in a 43-yard touchdown pass to Ammons. On a second and 10 from the Sid 43-yard line, Gascoyne found Ammons at the sideline. The sophomore wideout then beat two Sid defenders en route to the end zone.

Ammons had her best game of the year, catching eight passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns.

“Our game plan coming into this game was to try and get Jackie into some isolation coverage,” Brown head coach Bryan Hodge said. “We knew that they were either going to double her up or she was going to catch a lot of balls.”

Sid’s first drive of the half was not as successful with senior quarterback Lindsay Balthrop getting picked off by Brown senior cornerback Sara Lark. However, Sid was able to get the ball back and mount its first prolonged drive of the game, going 75 yards in 14 plays to get on the scoreboard. Balthrop threw a one-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Emily Jacob to cut the lead to 14-6.

Sid’s defense then forced Brown to a three-and-out and got the ball at its own 31-yardline.

Despite being stifled offensively and burned through the air courtesy of Gascoyne and Ammons, Sid still had a chance to force overtime, trailing only by eight. But Brown held firm, and four incomplete passes from Balthrop forced Sid to turn the ball over on downs.

Brown’s defensive unit performed marvelously throughout the entire game, limiting Balthrop to 7 of 20 passing for only 57 yards. Leading the way for Brown defensively was senior defensive tackle Jessica Simon, who had three sacks and forced countless hurried throws.

Despite the loss, four-time defending champion Sid still remains positive about the rest of the season.

“We lost two in a row last year and we still won the championship,” Balthrop said. “We’re not any worse off right now … we’re going to come after it.”

However, Sid’s losing streak ran to three in a row the next day as it fell 6-0 to Jones (3-1). In other games around the league, Martel (3-1) shut out Wiess (1-3) 13-0, Hanszen (3-1) held off Lovett (0-3) 7-0 and Will Rice (3-1) outscored Baker (0-5) 27-13.

End of article

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