photo credits to Miller Scott and Caroline Rose
A highly-anticipated matchup kicked off last Thursday on the football field during lunch, as the junior class of 2025 defeated the senior class of 2024 by a score of 21-0 in Menlo-Atherton’s second annual Powderpuff game. Each team was coached by M-A’s varsity football players—juniors Devin Hyde, Xander Eschelman, and Angelo Marin for the class of 2025 and seniors James Gray, Aaron Becker and Thomas Scott for the class of 2024.
Senior Anya Perazich gave the seniors a promising start as she intercepted junior Ava Chansari’s pass on the opening drive of the game. However, their momentum was short-lived as junior Nicole Nieva intercepted senior Dani Koo’s pass, setting up a huge touchdown run by junior Elizabeth Hoffman, putting the juniors up 7-0.
A strong senior drive was halted by a costly flag-guarding penalty forcing the seniors to come up empty-handed yet again to end the first half. When asked about his team’s slow start, senior coach James Gray said, “We came out flat, we are going to need to play better football.”
A big run by senior Jordan Bradley kicked off the second half. However, yet another interception, this time by junior Ruby Pence, would stall a promising drive for the seniors.
Another huge touchdown run by Hoffman put the juniors up 14-0 with eight minutes left to play.
The seniors then turned to a trick play as a double pass from senior Aria Sokol to senior Janiya Moss got the seniors’ offense to midfield. Finally, a third interception by junior Nicolee Ohtaki stopped another senior drive. Shortly after, junior Crystal Rios made an incredible catch to score the juniors’ third touchdown, making the score 21-0.
The game ended shortly after the final touchdown, which officially stamped the upset win for the class of 2025.
“Overall, it was an awesome experience and I can’t wait to do it all over again next year,” Hoffman said.
