It was a perfect, sunny day as the No Soup For You outside flag football team stopped San Quentin’s All-Madden at the goal line to win, 32-25.
Up seven at the two-minute warning, No Soup needed to stop All-Madden. Its defense turned it up, sacking All-Madden’s quarterback Royce Rose twice in a row. No Soup almost had him a third time, but Rose escaped the huge 330-pound defense lineman, Anthony Eustace, getting a pass off to Cleo Cloman. Cloman tried to run it in, but was stopped one yard shy of the first down, at about the 10- yard line, with 47 seconds to go before about 70 spectators.
After a short gain, All-Madden got the first down, posting a first and goal. The team could’ve tied the game with a touchdown and one-point conversion or won with a two-point conversation. However, defensive lineman Chad Bradley sacked Rose on the next play, taking precious seconds off the clock. With time running out, Rose passed toward Cleo Cloman, who had three touchdowns at that point, but it was intercepted by No Soup’s Captain Joe Adamson.
“We didn’t execute when we needed to. We had every opportunity to win. We didn’t make the big play and they did,” said All-Madden Coach Raheem Thompson-Bonilla.
All-Madden started off in the hole, 12-0. No Soup quarterback Eddie Martinez led off the squad’s first possession with a 35-yard bomb to Don Robinson Jr. Two plays later, Martinez threw a touchdown pass to Rany Paugh.
No Soup For You and All-Madden with the coaches
Next All-Madden failed to post a first down.
On No Soup’s next possession, Martinez threw a long pass down the sideline to Kay Born, with wide open field in front of him. He would have taken it home, if not for Trevor Bird’s flag-grabbing dive. Two plays later, Martinez threw his second touchdown pass to Born. Both extra point tries failed.
“This is perfect—trailing 12-0 will test them to see if they can hold it together as a team. Win or lose, it’s about sportsmanship,” said All-Madden sponsor Vernon Philpott.
All-Madden got back into the game on defense. Rose, playing safety, intercepted Martinez’s pass. Then Rose, back at quarterback, threw a touchdown pass to Cloman, making the score 12-6. Rose went on to grab three interceptions.
Paugh snared Martinez’s bomb and burned Granval Hunter for 36 yards. He was stopped just short of a touchdown. Ryan Jeffery completed the drive with a touchdown catch, bringing the score to 18-6.
With three minutes ‘til halftime, Rose threw a bomb to Cloman for a controversial touchdown. After a discussion among the refs, it was ruled good, making the score 18-13 with a conversion.
Kay Born leaped over a defender to snatch a 40- yard pass, putting No Soup in the red-zone. No Soup threw into the end zone, but All-Madden’s Alias Jones batted the ball away from Eustace, stopping what would have been a touchdown.
Then All-Madden’s T. Sayres and Tone Sorrell, respectively, sacked the quarterback on consecutive plays, stopping No Soup a yard from the goal line. The score was 18-13 at the half.
“It’s all about our guys calming down and executing plays, keeping the refs out of their minds and concreting on doing what we practiced,” ThompsonBonilla said about All-Madden.
“It’s not over because momentum can switch easily,” said Adamson.
On the first drive of the second half, Cloman intercepted Martinez’s pass and ran it in for a score. All-Madden took the lead, 19-18.
“You’re a true player (Cloman). That’s my captain,” said teammate Marcus Pettit.
A chance to increase the lead was intercepted by No Soup’s Deonta Dorrough, who end up with three interceptions. Dorrough said pregame he had predicted he would get three interAll-Madden Falls Short, 32-25, to No Soup For You ceptions and a touchdown. “I wanted a TD; I underachieved,” he joked.
The score was 26-25 after AllMaddens utility player Jones caught a short pass and scrambled past defenders to take in, with 4:15 left in the game.
All-Madden turned the pressure up on No Soup’s QB, sacking him several times. However, after standing in the pocket most of the game, he surprised the defense by running, scrambling and buying time to throw another TD to Jeffery with less then two minutes to go.
“Interceptions were due in part to hesitation, instead of running, I was forcing it. I should have mixed it up earlier,” said Martinez.
All-Madden failed to score on its final drive and No Soup won the Nov. 9 game.
“I enjoyed your company. I love and appreciate y’all taking the time. When I get out there, the drinks are on me,” said Cloman to No Soup.
