Thursday night the ladies took to the gridiron in the annual homecoming week Powder Puff game. The Sky View girl participants battled each other for four quarters before the speed and agility of team “Darkness” coached by Yabiste Wells, proved to be too much for the tenacious group of team “Optimus Prime” coached by Cole Bangerter.

The teams appeared to be pretty evenly matched in a back and forth battle of sheer will and a determination, matched with some pretty good if not necessarily fundamentally sound football.

Team Optimus Prime got on the board first behind the ground and pound running game of quarterback and Sky View basketball star Danica Webb. Webb had several good running plays one of which ended up in the end zone in the second quarter.

There was no shortage of focus from the players. As the game went on comments on the sidelines ranged from how much fun people were having to “That girl has hit me in the face three times, if she does it again I’m going to take her out.” The intensity of the game was thick with fun and emotion.

Team Darkness was next to score behind some trickery drawn up by offensive coordinator Dalton Goody. In a play reminiscent of a YouTube video I saw a couple weeks back quarterback Keri Hansen took the ball in an interesting exchange from the center and walked through the defense while her o-line and the defenses stayed put. Capitalizing on the confusion once she was in the clear Hansen took off on a long sprint that ended in the end zone and just like that both teams were tied at six a piece.

At halftime all tied up as the teams got a drink and some instructions from their coaches the crowd was entertained by the unique squad of cheerleaders that took the field. Sky View men in full cheerleading gear including sweater tops and skirts performed choreographed cheers to the approving claps and cheers of the crowd. The halftime performance culminated in the traditional pyramid that was performed quite impressively by these manly men in skirts.

In the third quarter the Darkness increased its lead using the running game once again. Bethany King took the ball and headed around the right end weaving through defenders before turning on the jets and outrunning the Optimus Prime defense on about a 70 yard sprint to the end zone. King said, “I was just trying to keep a straight course where I didn’t have to dip and dive too many times and, the girls were coming at me and I had the ball in my outside arm so they wouldn’t take it from me . . . I just kept running and my flags didn’t get pulled so I went all the way.” King is a member of the Sky View track team and was part of the record breaking 4×100 relay team that went to state the past two years. King also competes in the 100 and 200 meter races, and is also trying out her hand, or her feet as it were, in cross country this year.

Optimus Prime showed determination not unlike that of their Hollywood namesake, and battled on in the fourth quarter to a near score. Webb and crew pushed their way deep into Darkness territory and from about 10-15 yards out looked to be poised to tie up the game. In four down territory Optimus Prime tried to get it done on the ground and in the air but came up short.

In the end team Darkness was victorious 12-to-6 in the contest. The ladies put on a great show and the close battle was fun for everyone involved.

After the game Coach Bangerter expressed how proud he was of the effort put in by team Optimus Prime. When kidded about the troubles getting passing game going being attributed to his quarterback throwing like a girl, he assured me his quarterback did throw like a girl because she was one. Actually Webb threw some pretty nice passes and connected on a few throughout the game. Bangerter said, “I have to give credit to the Darkness’ defense, they just shut us down. We had the option working early, but we kind of got away from that. Danika did great, she was who we wanted at QB, she executed the running game really well.” Bangerter said he had a lot of fun coaching the team and commented that it was a good experience.