By Jeff Yoder
Indiana Wesleyan's annual "Backyard Brawl" took place last Nov. 3 evening, as the top intramural football teams representing Taylor (The Brotherhood and Third East Olson) put up strong and dramatic performances en route to championship victories.
The women of Third East used a dominant defense to stifle opponents, giving up just three touchdowns total in all three games.
"The other schools played a different style than any teams we played at Taylor, but our defense was able to adapt," said senior Kelsie Sereno.
Third East defeated IWU in a 12-6 battle to take game one. They squeaked out a 13-12 win over Anderson in round two before stunning Huntington in a 7-0 overtime win to take the championship.
Senior quarterback Maggi Tyska connected with senior Rachel Bartow for the game-winning touchdown on fourth down.
"(Maggi) really understands what it means to see the field," said senior Kayt Watts. "As a team, we always just felt comfortable when she's got the ball. She made the tough decisions and really came through for every single game."
The Third East offense was led by Tyska at quarterback, Bartow at running back and receivers in Sereno and senior Kayla Williams. The aggressive defense was led by pass rushers in Watts, senior Leticia Starks and junior Jaci Liechty as they disrupted opposing offenses all evening.
Broho's route to the championship was not as clean, but the Sammy men showed their resilience by fighting through inadvertent whistles, overtime playoffs and overcoming turnovers.
Broho fell to IWU 7-6 in game one of the tournament. They bounced back in game two by scoring 13 unanswered points in the second half against Anderson to win 13-6.
Both Anderson's team and Broho were 1-1, so they played an overtime to decide who would face IWU in the final.
Each team had four downs to score from the 10 yard line. Broho scored on third down and reached the final following an interception by freshman Ryan Frantz to knock out Anderson.
In the championship, Broho trailed 6-7 as the time remaining ticked down.
IWU attempted to kill the clock, but quarterback sophomore Matt Rossi and the Broho offense took over and scored on a three-play drive to take a 12-7 lead.
The lead would hold as IWU turned the ball over on the final possession.
Both teams were supported by many Taylor students coming to IWU to cheer on their classmates.
