MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- The Wreckin’ Crew took on Artemis in a Intramural Flag Football game at the Penny Lake football field here Monday. Artemis, now calling themselves Da Freaks, defeated the Wreckin’ Crew 37-19 with just under two minutes left in the game.
“We are no longer Artemis; we are Da Freaks and we are coming for you,” said Paul Torres, quarterback and safety for Da Freaks.
If a team is ahead by 18 points at the second half two-minute warning, The game ends due to the mercy rule.
With just over a minute left in the game, Da Freaks allowed Wreckin’ Crew to score a touchdown just to extend play for a couple of minutes.
That play alone pretty much told the story of the game. The story being Da Freaks controlled the game on both sides of the ball not leaving any chance for the Wreckin’ Crew to contend.
With first possession of the ball Da Freaks set the tempo by scoring on their first play of the game on a 60-yard touchdown pass to take a 7-0 lead after the extra point conversion.
“We wake up and piss excellence, defecate greatness and wipe with success,” said Samuel Graviet, wide receiver and cornerback for Da Freaks.
The Wreckin’ Crew got the ball on its own 20 and managed to get to mid-field at the 40-yard-line before turning the ball over on downs.
With possession of the ball again, the beating continued with another touchdown scoring drive ending with a failed extra point conversion to extend the lead to 13-0.
It was clear as water that if the Wreckin’ Crew wanted to stay in the game that they needed to put something on the board with less than 10 minutes left in the half.
After a few ball moving plays the Wreckin’ Crew was within scoring distance sitting on Da Freaks 20 and second and goal.
Byron Johnson, quarterback for the Wreckin’ Crew, improvised a quarterback sneak for six to make it a 13-6 game.
Following the touchdown Johnson made an interception on Da Freaks 35 and once again they were in scoring distance.
After a few failed plays the Wreckin’ Crew was faced with a fourth and goal situation in which they converted for six again to nearly even the score.
By this point, down by one, they simply went for the tie just before half and converted the extra point conversion with a bootleg run by Johnson to even the game at 13-13.
Da Freaks didn’t want to go into the half tied or even giving the illusion that this was going to be a close game, so with 1:15 on the clock Torres aired one out to Graviet to connect for a 50-yard touchdown to regain the lead 19-13.
“I feel like it was easy,” said Graviet. “We just had more talent.”
The second half of play wasn’t too beneficial for the Wreckin’ Crew as they didn’t get anything going early on.
For Da Freaks it was an entirely different story. They put up two more touchdowns to take a commanding lead of 31-13 with 7:18 remaining in the game.
Due to the mercy rule Da Freaks were all shouting “let them score” as the Wreckin’ Crew was faced with a fourth and goal with only 3:35 left in the game.
The players all realized with the two-minute warning coming soon it was in their best interest to allow the points to continue the game.
The Wreckin’ Crew scored making the game 31-19; however, with less than two minutes left in the game, Da Freaks put another one in the end zone to end the game by mercy rule 37-19.