Sigma Chi is the latest Favre victim.
Not Brett Favre, but Favre’s Favorites, which drove late to give the team a go-ahead touchdown and an eventual 20-13 victory for the All-University Championship.
After a long series, Jeff Crist found Mark Plummer for a 3-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal with 1:56 left in the game. The score and eventual extra-point catch by Nick McCoy came with all momentum against the team after Favre’s Favorites had given up 13 unanswered points in the second half.
“All year, we play our best when we get a lead, and I can kind of see my guys getting their dobbers down [after the score was tied],” said Favre’s Jeff Swanson. “And we just huddled up and said, ‘Just play like we play.’ ”
To seal the game, Crist intercepted a Nate Ley pass with under a minute to play. He took a knee on the ensuing plays to run the clock out for the title.
The 13-point cushion came mainly from Crist and his receivers, who picked up the Sigma Chi blitz in the first half.
Using a variation of shovel passes and options, Crist started the game completing six of his first seven passes. Two of those were touchdowns, with an 18-yard pass to Jeff Sweazey in the first quarter, and then a 36-yard bomb to A.J. Palash in the second on a fourth down.
But despite his play, Crist credited his wideouts with the early lead.
“I have a great receiving corps,” he said. “Those guys make me look good.”
The second half appeared as though it would go the same way when Swanson managed an amazing interception on the first throw of the half from Ley.
Jumping straight in the air, Swanson pulled the ball to his chest with just his right hand, and hit his back on the ground — à la Troy Polamalu. Swanson remained down after the catch, appearing to have the wind knocked out of him.
“It’s funny. All year my teammates have been joking with me because I go up [for interceptions] with one hand,” said the senior. “But this time, I used my momentum to carry me up … Yeah it hurt, but it was for the team.”
Sigma Chi eventually regained possession of the ball, though, and two touchdown passes to Dan Reichardt and a deflection extra-point catch by Jon Hegwood tied the score early in the fourth quarter.
Favre’s Favorites was not originally slated to be in the All-University semifinals on Monday. But after DCD, which beat the team for a spot on Sunday, was ruled ineligible for the use of a suspended player, Favre’s Favorites was given a second chance.
It also had just seven players available with the loss of Derek “White Chocolate” Johnson, who was out for the season with an ACL injury.
Sigma Chi had 11 players on the field, and likely the first legitimate fan base in flag-football this season behind it. Approximately 30 spectators made noise for the fraternity throughout the game, many of them brothers in the fraternity.
And Favre’s Favorites quarterback Crist said that may have been the biggest reason his team let Sigma Chi back into the game.
“I wouldn’t say I was worried [during the comeback], just a little rattled,” he said. “They had really good fan support. It’s crazy how many guys came out to support them.”