The Fayetteville-Manlius High School girls’ flag football team pulled off an unbelievable win Monday night, scoring in the final five seconds of the game to get their first victory as a program.
After the opposing team, Oneida, just scored a touchdown to retake the lead, FM was down by four with just 11 seconds to go. “I was off on the sidelines thinking, ‘There’s no way we are winning this,’” said senior player Varna Aeleti. Being off the field, Varna and the rest of the defense were losing hope. All the way back by their own end zone, the girls made one play to creep 10 yards up.
Varna described what happened next, “All of a sudden, Kalyna just chucks it into the middle and Freedom ends up catching it and just running it all the way to the end zone.”
Sophomore player Freedom Umstead, out jumped three defenders to catch the long pass from Kalyna Dannenberg. She then ran past them to the end zone as the clock ticked to zero. Freedom scored the final points to push FM into the lead, the team winning 20-18.
The girls’ reaction was the real joyous moment though, as they celebrated in true happiness. “It was unreal,” Varna shared, “I play soccer and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that level of excitement in a different sport, so it was really cool. I see what the hype is about with football now.” Following the game, the team followed tradition like the boys’ team does by going to the top of Pride Hill and running down to celebrate.
The win was shared among teammates that have played together before in other sports, and also new friends through the start of the flag program. It was a great way to begin the sport’s run here at FM.
