I made my way to home side of the stadium and there was plenty of seats remaining on the metal bleachers. It was already in the second quarter. The home team cheerleaders were wearing red so I assumed the actual home team were the team in Purple. It turns out the home team were actually wearing white and blue, how confusing. On the scored board it said the names Cavaliers and Pioneers. So it was the Malone Pioneers vs the Walsh Cavaliers. Once I figured it all out I began rooting for the home team like I should have been.
The crowd was small but it was a bright day with a nice chill in the air, perfect for football.
I befriended some neighbouring fans and they too did not know why Malone's kit is white and blue when their logo and cheerleaders are in red. Both teams are small Christian schools, and both teams play their home games here at Fawcett Stadium, so really either team could have won, although Malone are the recognised home team today.
The Cheerleaders did not stop dancing and cheering, even during play. You can see the organisational difference between this and NFL game. As the Cheerleaders in NFL only cheer when not during the play. Any way, these girls were particularly ambitious with their stunts, making human pyramids and back flips. Quite humoursly...although I shouldn't laugh, one girl on top of the pyramid fell, fortunately she was caught and was able to laugh it off and give it another try. These girls are crazy, there are no crash mats around and they can get as badly hurt as the players they are cheering on.
Erica who was sitting by me, was here cheering on her boyfriend, who goes to Malone. He plays number 80 and I tried to get some snaps of him. That's twice in two days I have tried to pics of someone playing number 80, that Jerry Rice must be popular round here?
The cheerleaders kept throwing out small red football to the crowd, after some missed catches I finally got my receiving hands on the ball and caught one of the balls! I got a little peckish and went to the food stands, which were still open in the 4th quarter. I noticed they sell “Pizza oven” pizza, which is the pizza that ha been recommended to me from the “Terror” (Tara) in Cincinnati. I bought slice and it was buy one get one, now that would be great if that happened at every stadium I go to.
“Terror” was right, it is damn good pizza!
The game was drawing to a close the Pioneers were down 21-17 with the ball in hand and only minutes to spare. They marched down the field playing a good balance of run and pass. It made for an exciting end, because they did not want to score too quickly and give the ball back, but they also knew they had to score a TD as a field goal would not be good enough. This is what I love about football, is the tactical side of the game. Not only do you want to score, or need to score, but you also want to stop the other team getting the ball with enough time. The fact that Malone needed the TD made it really exciting. All the Cavaliers needed to do was either waste time, and stop the TD. Or they could have let them get a quick TD giving them 2-3 minutes with time outs to get a TD themselves or a field goal to tie. Great situation
The Pioneers scored after knocking the clock down which lead to a great climax to the game, and keeping me with a very good looking home win ratio. 14 games 12 home wins! Not bad.
Go Malone Pioneers!
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