The best offense is a good defense

Photo By Cpl. Antwaun Jefferson | Lorenzo Reid, a player for the Combat Instructor Weapons Company, tries to avoid being caught getting one of his flags pulled during a flag football game at Freeney Field on Sept. 19. OCS vs. CI Weapons was the first game of the season to be played at Freeney Field.  

QUANTICO, VA, UNITED STATES

09.19.2011

Story by Lance Cpl. Antwaun Jefferson 

Marine Corps Base Quantico

QUANTICO, Va. - After months of practices and scrimmages, Flag Football is back in action. Teams from all over the base have been gearing up for their season openers, trying to start their season off with a win. The season opener was scheduled to have the Expeditionary Warfare School facing off against Communications School’s Enlisted Instructor Platoon Sept. 19.

Unfortunately, due to problems in their Academic department, EWS had to forfeit the game. In any case of a game not being played because of a forfeit, the opposing team is given touchdown. That being said, by forfeit, EIP won the game 6 to 0.

The second game of the night, which was the first game to game to actually be played, was the Officer Candidates School against the Combat Instructor Weapons Company. Being the first game of the season for both teams, OCS and CI Weapons were both confident and eager to get things started.

“I believe this game is going a good morale booster for the team,” said Kenneth Phillips, the coach for OCS. “Our opponents are just another road block that we’re going to blast through.”

After winning the coin toss, OCS received the ball first. In the first two plays CI Weapons blasted through OCS’s defensive line to the quarterback. Hyped up after the two sacks, Phillips then intercepted a pass from CI Weapons’ quarterback.

For the next four possessions, it was a battle of the defensive lines. Neither team was willing to give up that first touchdown. Plays by OCS consisted of passes being knocked down and the quarterback being rushed consistently. On the other side of the ball, CI Weapons had a trouble moving the ball down field as passes were dropped as well as penalties were called for false starts.

With OCS having the minimum number of players needed to play the game, fatigue started to show on their faces.

“We don’t have all of our players today due to scheduling conflicts,” said Eric Aumock, the assistant coach for OCS “We still feel pretty confident coming into the game today”,

After a while, OCS seemed to understand the dynamics of their opponent’s defense. They started throwing short passes that made their way closer and closer to CI Weapons’ end zone. On second down, having time, the OCS’ quarterback decided to throw a long ball into the end zone. It was a nice spiral but the receiver was in double coverage and it was picked off by CI Weapons.

After the interception, CI Weapons’ offense took the field. On the first play, their quarterback saw a man wide open down the field and lobbed the ball in his direction. Using his speed the receiver made his way to the ball, caught it and out ran the defenders to the end zone.

“It felt great scoring the first touchdown of the game,” said Milton Taylor, one of the receivers for CI Weapons. “All we had to do was set the pace, now we just have to keep it going.”

Taylor was right on the money, because on the very next play by OCS, CI Weapons intercepted another pass, this time running it back for a touchdown. The next play with a short pass, CI Weapons scored the extra point as well. They were not done yet though, on OCS’s second down, Steve Schevtzow, a player for CI Weapons intercepted a pass for his team.

At this point CI Weapons seemed to be unstoppable, until they threw a pass that was picked off by OCS’ Raymond Voitowicz,. It looked like the tables were finally turning in favor of OCS. But then a flag was thrown for illegal contact on the defense. Negating the interception by Voitowicz and giving the ball was given back to CI Weapons.

The scoring being in favor of CI Weapons did not sit well with OCS. With a little more than two minutes left in the half OCS knew they needed to put some points on the board. The next play CI Weapons’s quarterback overthrew hit receiver and the pass was picked off by OCS’ cornerback/quarterback, David Smith, who took the ball back to their opponent’s 40 yard line.

After a couple of strategically placed short passes, Smith was going to have to do something soon before the end of the first half. With a few seconds left, he throws the ball into the end zone, but was knocked down by a defender.

During halftime, both teams were figuring out how to keep the momentum going how or what they would have to do to stay in the game.

"The other team keeps rushing us to pass,” said Smith. “We just have to come back at them and be a little bit faster to avoid that pressure.”

In the second half the game went back to the defensive lines again. OCS attempted to make plays, but CI Weapons continued to put pressure on the quarterback as well as cover their zones. CI Weapons found it difficult to get down the field also. There were plenty of passes but most would slip off player’s finger tips, were batted down by OCS’s defense, or called back because of a penalty. By the end of the second half, CI Weapons intercepted two more passes and scored one touchdown. The final score of the game was CI Weapons 19, OCS 0.

“We played great on both sides of the ball,” Phillips said. “We knew we had to make sure to put pressure on their quarterback and sure enough our defense did the job.”

• Date Taken: 09.19.2011
• Date Posted: 11.17.2012 10:10
• Story ID: 98028
• Location: QUANTICO, VA, US