de Toledo Flag Football Makes It Back-To-Back Championships

The Football team followed on Thursday with a thrilling roller coaster of a victory over the #1-seeded Titans. de Toledo entered the game knowing that they had nothing to lose as the lower seed and they played with that exact mentality, outhustling their opponent through four quarters. Things started in the Jaguars’ favor with a double-tipped interception that was housed by Max C. ‘23. This quick-hitter shocked the Titans and set the tone for the opening half, one in which the Jaguars showed great balance on the offensive and defensive sides. de Toledo followed the interception with another defensive stop, which frustrated the opposing quarterback who was not used to dealing with consistent pressure and sticky downfield coverage. The Jaguars capitalized once again with a methodical offensive drive that ended with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Shaun S. ‘24 to Max C. ‘23 on a zag route, giving de Toledo the early 14-0 lead. The Titans were able to get one back with a touchdown and a two-point conversion late in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 14-8, but little did they know, it would be the final score of the day for either team. 

The Jaguars had their chances to put the game away in the second half with offensive drives that came up just short of breaking the goal line, but the defense carried that same intensity from the first half into the final two frames. On two separate occasions, the defense hunkered down within its own 20 yard line (the equivalent of the red zone) to maintain the lead. The first stop saw freshman corner Daniel G. ‘26 make his first career interception at the most crucial of times. His fellow Jaguars mobbed him after the pick, knowing how big it was to stop the Titans at that very moment. After the Jaguars gave the ball back to the Titans on the subsequent possession, within the 20-yard marker again, the defense did what they had been doing all day, coming up with clutch play after clutch play. de Toledo knew that four more plays would determine the game, and within those four plays, the defense’s pressure made the quarterback go haywire, having to constantly move around the pocket while finding his receivers covered across the board with no room to put the ball. All of the attempted passes on the final drive were swatted by the Jaguars secondary, leading to a turnover on downs. The Jaguars offense, on their final drive, put the game away with a first-down inside quarterback scamper, something that caught the Titans off guard. Once the Jaguars broke the first down line, the clock ran out with the Titans having exhausted all of their timeouts on their prior offensive drive. 

The Titans offense was challenged for the first time in weeks, as they averaged 28.3 points per game in their prior six games. The Jaguars were the only team this season to hold them to single digits and it happened at the most important time. It led to de Toledo’s fourth league championship in the last five seasons, one they will surely relish as the underdog entering the game and as the champion exiting the game.