THE TITLE IS FOREVER PINK
8/26/03

Billy's Shoes, the combined squad of Billy Otis and Cement Shoes, wins a heartstopper over Leland's handpicked renegade squad, NICE!!, to capture the Summer Co-ed Competitive Flag Football championship.

During the regular season, Billy's Shoes and NICE finished first and second, but the first time they met, it wasn't much of a contest. Billy crushed NICE 34-0, click here for the story. Based on that Billy would have to be considered a heavy favorite in the rematch.

The finals was a different story. After the loss, NICE revamped it's roster, adding a quarterback with championship experience, Todd Walker, and Billy had lost all-CSA player Ray Lee to relocation. After the first contest, Nice had run off five wins in a row to get to the finals, allowing only 12 points in those games, and Billy had won games over last place teams Godzilla and Dude, Where's the Goal Line, so they weren't battle tested.

Going into the night, Vegas had the game a pick'em, with the over/under at 36 points.

Billy's Shoes were the regular season champions and were the pre-tournament favorites. In the semi-finals they routed Hee-Haw (the only team to defeat them in the regular season) 20-0 and got to rest while NICE!! did the same thing to Once You Go Black, also winning 20-0.

The Rainbow mercenaries (NICE!!) would face the Pink warriors (Billy's Shoes) in a one game match-up with everything on the line. The game had natural intrigue (Would Leland get his first flag championship?) but several other factors were at play as well. Billy's Shoes was playing with a skeleton squad. They had only nine players, and five guys. This meant that no male player on Billy's Shoes would get to rest. NICE wasn't without their own dilemnas. Starting QB Todd Walker was injured and limited to snapping and backup QB Eric Ford was unavailable.

All that notwithstanding, perhaps the biggest part of the championship match-up was that for the first time, one of the following CSA top ten members would win a co-ed championship, either #3 Chad Wade, NICE or #9 Joe Fassler, Billy's Shoes.

The game started out with NICE's dominating defense standing tall. They forced a punt that was returned to their own 38 yard line by Chad Wade. On the first play, NICE's third QB, Sean Boyette, hit Brad Hartman with a screen pass. Hartman took the pass down the left sideline and was finally downed at the six yard line. A personal foul on Shoes moved the ball to the three yard line and first and goal. On the next play, Boyette scrambled and was able to take it in for the games first touchdown. After an unsuccessful conversion, NICE led 6-0.

Shoes didn't go away, they responded like champions. After an injury to star player, Larry "Big Pep" Smith, Shoes was forced to go ironman the rest of the way, with four men and four women on the field the whole time. With a little under 30 minutes remaining in the game, Shoes would have to overcome a deficit, and a determined opponent with two subs, and a dictatorial opposing captain on a mission to prove everyone wrong.

The injury to Smith had the reverse effect from what would be expected. Instead of  being able to take advantage of an obvious edge, NICE fell back on their heels and Shoes got fired up.

Fassler, the Shoes QB, marched his troops down the field. NICE, whose defense had been sound all season (except for one obvious exception), began to fall apart, several poor decisions led to four penalties against them, and sloppy play led to busted coverages that allowed Shoes to move down the field. Shoes was at the three yard line when Fassler escaped the NICE rush and scored the tying touchdown.

On the extra point, Fassler was able to get rid of a pass just milliseconds before having his flag pulled and Cathi Dugger caught the pass in the front of the endzone to give Shoes a 7-6 lead. That was the score at halftime.

The coveted championship would come down to one 20 minute battle.

What was expected to be a knock down, drag out half was anything but. With both offenses unable to amount anything, it was more like an exercise in confusion then a championship march.

Shoes was working with a depleted squad against a fast and talented defensive unit. NICE was working with an inexperienced quarterback against a smart and savvy defense that took away the primary weapons.

The teams traded mistakes, punts, and interceptions throughout the second half. On the opening play of the second stanza, Kourtney Cotton picked off Boyette and gave Shoes first and goal. The NICE defense stood tall though, moving Shoes backwards, thanks to a sack by Amber Pereles, and stopped Shoes on fourth and goal. Neither team was able to move the ball much. In fact, in the entire second half, each team recorded only one first down. With about five minutes left in the 7-6 game, NICE got the ball back on an interception by Judith Stein. They had the ball, and a chance to win the championship.

Strong defense forced NICE into a fourth down play from their own 39 yard line. Boyette was able to convert, hitting Leland for a four yard gain and the crucial first down.

With under three minutes remaining, NICE had first and closed, but the chance to win was still in front of them. It was  "seize the moment" time, and that is exactly what happened. Darren Ross, the championship game MVP, read the play and was able to make a leaping interception of Boyette's pass. With no NICE players between Ross and the endzone, Darren was able to take it in for the championship winning touchdown.  Shoes led 13-6 and took a time-out to go for two points and the guaranteed victory. On the conversion, Fassler was able to scramble and elude the NICE defense for the score and the insurmountable lead.

In one of CSA's classic match-ups, Billy's Shoes defeated NICE!! 15-6 to capture the Summer Co-ed Competitive Flag Football championship.