“It was like herding cats, 11 at a time,” Mr. Ernie Millard said about being a referee at the Powderpuff game. Mr Millard mediated the game alongside Mr. Steve O’Brien on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

This annual homecoming tradition puts junior girls up against senior girls in the ultimate test of strength: a football game.

The game began as any does: team huddles, the national anthem and kickoff. However, this game was unlike Homestead’s typical Friday night lights.

The juniors started off strong, with a touchdown by Ciana Engroff. This resulted in a spectacle of a celebration as Chloe Marotta, junior, flipped over Engroff on her back.

The girls quickly made it known that they were a force to be reckoned with. “The juniors were out for blood,” Grace Magee, junior, said.

The seniors fired back with roughly a minute left in the first quarter. This was when the tensions began to rise.

Relentless seemed to characterize the action on the field. With each touchdown, the girls grew more vicious, as shown by Meghan Costigan, senior, who joked, “the next person that’s holding me is getting punched in the face.”

By the final quarter the seniors were up 21-20, with touchdowns scored by Brigid West and Emily Harley. “I’ve never seen anyone run that fast for a football before,” Sierra Wadood, senior, said.

The last minutes were neck and neck, both teams playing with “incomparable grit and a will to win,” Mr. Scott Subach, business teacher and coach for the juniors, said.

In the end, the seniors won with a one point lead, an immensely different outcome from their 55 point loss last year.

“It was an intense game, but it came down to the fact that this was a classy group of girls who cared about the team effort and not the “I” aspect,” Ms. Lorin Kelly, health teacher and coach for the seniors, said.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Carly Rubin

Senior girls cover their hearts for the national anthem.