Western Oregon Journal

If Western powder puff is any indication, it's hard to change tradition.

The girls of the off-campus squad won 12-6 in Western's 27th annual powderpuff contest, running the off-campus win streak to 26 victories in a row.

The off-campus captain quartet of Stacey Reimers, Megan Beith, Kelsey Hutchinson and Polly Overfield had their squad ready to go, and their first drive was a dangerous one. Off-campus drove all the way to the five before quarterback Reimers was sacked on fourth down to end the drive.

On the ensuing possession, Britney Macnab intercepted an on-campus pass on the 39-yard line. After a couple of penalties, Macnab ran her way to the two-yard line and a first down. Jen Williams found her way into the endzone at the end of the first quarter to give off-campus a 6-0 lead.

Neither team scored during the second quarter, so the off-campus ladies took their six-point lead into halftime.

On-campus struck again on their first possession of the second half. On her own 37-yard line, Reimers completed a long pass to Macnab, who raced down the field and was finally brought down on the on-campus 31-yard line. An offsides penalty backed up the squad to the 36 on the next play, but Reimers hit Williams again long, and Williams ran in for the score to put off-campus up 12-0. The ensuing two-point conversion attempt failed, giving on-campus the ball again.

On the next possession, on second down the on-campus quarterback completed a pass from her own 35-yard line, and the receiver was not dragged down until off-campus' 13-yard line. Another completion took on-campus to the one-yard line, and the on-campus ladies ran in for the touchdown to bring the score to 12-6 with 5:40 remaining in the third quarter.

Despite both teams' best efforts, the scoreboard didn't change the rest of the game, and the off-campus squad celebrated its victory.

"I feel we did awesome," explained Kelly McMahon, a senior on the off-campus squad. "We played well as a team. This is an all-around great group of girls. We had great coaching this year and the right attitude."

Off-campus Head Coach Mike Todd was equally complimentary of his team's efforts.

"[The girls] were very well prepared," said Todd. "They practiced six days a week to learn coverages and formations. They took a 26-year tradition onto the field and wouldn't accept the loss. They did what they had to do."

Todd was especially excited about the effort he got out of his quarterback. Reimers is just a freshman.

"Our only question [going into the game] was if our freshman quarterback could handle the offense, and she exceeded expectations. We look forward to having her for four more years," he said.

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