The Tuscarora Jr. Titans Varsity defended their Mountain Valley Youth Football League championship by blasting Mt. Airy 34-6. The Jr. Titans Varsity had defeated Mt. Airy 6-0 in the regular season.
The win pushed the Varsity record to 12-0 for the 2011 season. Counting their 5 wins to close the 2010 season, the Varsity now has a 17-game winning streak in MVYFL play. The streak consists of 11 wins in regular season play and 6 wins in the playoffs.
National champs at work: Many of these girls are two-time national champions in competitive cheerleading. Building this stunt in practice are (l-r) flyers Katrina Murray, Christiana Toomey, and Sophie Baublitz. Forming the foundation are Destiny Buckhanan, Rachel Laereman, Alba Alvarado, Tammy Schott, Gwen Page, Channon Miles Saucer, Gabrielle Ficker, Julia Boro, and Clare Brodersen. Missing is Christine Hafner. SportsDashboards photo
The Cheer team, currently under the guidance of Aleshia Adams-Page, has been on a three-year roll. It began at Disneyland, in the U.S.A. Junior Nationals competition, where the Midget team won its division, only to be eclipsed by the Peewee team that not only won its division, but won the national grand championship as well. Two years ago, the Peewee team came in second at the JAMZ national championship in Las Vegas. This year, the Jr. Midgets won the JAMZ national championship in their division and the Jr. Peewees earned a second place.
SportsDashboards previously wrote about their achievements here and here.
This run of national prominence is being threatened as Page steps down as Cheer Director. Her daughter is graduating from the program, so Page’s last event will be the JAMZ national competition in January, where her Midget team will defend its championship. No one has come forward to assume the reins.
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The Tuscarora Jr. Titans Varsity squad breezed past Gamber 44-18 to move into the Mountain Valley Youth Football League championship game, set for Saturday. Last year, the Titans had defeated Gamber in the championship game.
The Varsity will defend its championship against fellow Mountain Division member Mt. Airy, which nipped Middletown 14-8. The two teams met in the third week of the season, with the Jr. Titans eking out a 6-0 victory.
The Jr. Titans JV team fell one game short of defending their conference title when they lost to Mt. Airy 24-6. The JV team had defeated Mt. Airy 16-8 during the regular season and had won the championship last year by downing Mt. Airy in the finals.
Chargers defend with gang tackles: Finn Weeks (49) and Jordan Halpern (81) close in on the Bronco runner from the left while Michael Burke (23), Jake Gammon (19) and Mason Cohen (55) converge from the right. Trailing the play are Alex Naqvi (2) and Max Harrod (44). SportsDashboards photo
In that game, the Broncos ran off to a 37-6 victory after leading at the half 14-6.
In this game, the score was 8-0 until midway through the fourth quarter. The Chargers made some adjustments on defense that kept the Broncos in check: they recognized that arm tackling and one-on-one tackles were not effective against hard running backs, so they resorted to an aggressive defense that featured gang tackling to bring down the Broncos runners.
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Workhorse: Keith Bradshaw scored all three Yellow Jacket TDs in their semifinal playoff game. SportsDashboards photo
Overtime rules are different in American Youth Football, the body with oversight of the Norcal conference. Teams get the ball on the 25 yard line and have four plays in which to score. First downs cannot extend the drive. It’s four plays and then the other team gets the ball. The Yellow Jackets got the ball first and immediately handicapped themselves with two false start penalties, which meant that they had to go 35 yards to score in four plays.
Novato went to their bread-and-butter back, Keith Bradshaw. He reeled off runs of 9, 10, and 8 yards to move the ball to the 8 yard line with one play remaining. Again Bradshaw carried the ball. As with his other carries, he shucked off tacklers as he drove for the end zone. It took four Broncos to haul him down, just inches short of the goal line.
The Broncos made the most of their opportunity. Moses Johnson and Arturangel Lara made the going difficult for the Broncos, but that actually tells two stories. The first is the extraordinary effort the two defenders exerted to stem the tide. The second is the telltale fact that their tackles were being made in the defensive secondary, after Bronco runners had bolted through the defensive line. A quarterback sneak from the 1 yard line on the fourth play ended the contest.
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Two Tuscarora Jr. Titans teams are defending champions in the Mountain Valley Youth Football League and both took the first steps in defense of those crowns last weekend by winning their playoff games.
The Jr. Titan Varsity, winner of the Mountain Division and the only undefeated Varsity team in the league at 9-0, rolled past Walkersville 32-6 to earn a berth in the league semifinals. The JV team, which finished first in the Mountain Division with an 8-1 record, advanced with a 25-6 win over Boonsboro.
The Pony team lost to Gamber 14-6.
The Jr. Titan team playing in the Frederick Youth Football League finished their season in second place with a 7-2 record, with both losses coming at the hands of undefeated Middletown.
Stop right there: Jakari Anderson (27) stops the Novato runner during the Jr. Peewees shutout. Anderson scored a TD as well. Jack Naqvi photo
Central Marin teams have been blessed this season with talented parents who have documented the progress of the teams with photographs that are available to all on Shutterfly. Maryann Cassidy has done a superlative job of documenting Jr. Midget games. Terrie Baum provided excellent photo coverage of the Jr. Midgets bowl game on the same site. The pictures of David Spitz capture the moment for the Peewee team. Jack Naqvi’s excellent work features the Jr. Peewee team.
Despite the score, the Cadets showed their mettle
Sometimes, courage and resolve are not enough to sway an outcome in your direction; and that was the case for the Cadets against the Bay Area Spartans.
The Chargers dug themselves an unbelievable hole in the first quarter, then played the Spartans to a standstill in the first half, trailing only 7-0 at the intermission.
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Two-way threat: Sebastian Delgado (80) races toward the end zone for the Stingers' first TD. He snuffed the last Charger threat by intercepting a pass. SportsDashboards photo
The Killer Bees distinguished themselves in defeat. In the first game of the season, they lost to the Central Marin Chargers 26-0. In the playoffs, they narrowed that gap to 14-0. The Mighty Bees struggled to the end against the Vacaville Bengals, losing 36-6.
The Mighty Bees got the mighty unfair playoff schedule
The Norcal conference has implemented both a local playoff system and a bowl system for postseason play. Many of the Division 1 teams enter the AYF playoffs, aiming to qualify for the AYF national championships. The local playoffs system is designed for the best teams that do not opt to play in AYF qualifying games. The bowl games are for teams who do not qualify for either playoff level.
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