BAYSIDE TIMES

DAC wins National NFL Flag Football
Orlando, Florida - November 19, 2005

It came down to one play. Three months of hard work, endless hours of training, countless pulled flags in preparation for the defensive effort needed to win a champsionship all came down to one play. The DAC Panthers of Queens found themselves in a defensive struggle against the number one seed of the tournament, the Windsor Hill Tigers of Las Vegaas. The DAC Panthers struck first for a 7-0 lead but the Tigers responded with a score of their own to put the game into overtime. Like the college game, overtime in NFL Flag football has each team start at the 5 yard line. The team that gains the most yards wins the game. The team from Las Vegas had the first drive. They gained only three yards on 3 attempts. The DAC defense led by Kosta Akoumianakis, Brian Kruger, Tyler Portalatin, and Chris Beetz held strong. Now all the boys from Queens had to do was to gain three yards. Under normal circumstances, three yards was easy for the boys from Queens to gain. After all they had offensive weapons like QB Yianni Gavalas, WR Eddie Rosicgno, and RB Anthony Libroia. That three headed monster drove opposing defenses crazy all year long. But this was the semi finals of the NFL National Tournament. The team on the other side of the ball had also come a long way in their attempt to win the NFL Title. On first down, quarterback Yianni Gavalas handed the ball off to running back Anthony Libroia. Like a swarm of bees, the Las Vegas defense stuffed the running atttempt. The 2nd down play had all the DAC wide receivers stacked on the left side. As wide receiver Nicholas Athanasopoulos broke deep on a slant, Yianni Gavalas tried to hit him in stride but the Las Vegasdefensive back made a nice play to break up the pass. It all came down to this one play. If the young Panthers gain three yards they advance to the championship game. If they do not, they go home. The crowd watching the game was huge but very silent. As the DAC Panthers broke their huddle you can sense the tension in the air. Both teams knew exactly what was on the line. The winner goes on to be featured on ESPN while the loser of this game starts planning for next year. The DAC offense set up their goal line offense where wide receiver Eddie Rosicgno and Anthony Libroia line up on the left side. As Anthony ran a 7 yard out, Eddie broke left underneath him at the five yard mark. Eddie was open for that split second that Yianni Gavalas released the ball. Eddie's soft hands cradled the ball beyond the three yard mark and ran it in for a touchdown and a DAC Panthers victory. The crowd erupted in cheers as the DAC players jumped for joy.

The emotions felt throughout the day were like a roller coaster ride, filled with so many peaks and valleys. The day started with an 15-13 overtime win over the Orlando Patriots. Anthony Libroia and his relentless pursuit as rusher forced a safety in overtime to win the game for the DAC boys. The seond game of the day was a disaster. Facing a much bigger Watsonville Vikings team, the DAC boys lost 22-12. The score does not indicate the dominance that the Vikings showed over the Panthers. In the third and final game of pool play, the DAC team lost 13-7 with 30 seconds left on the clock.

Dejected, the team from Queens entered the playoffs against the 4th seed of the tournament, the same Watsonville Vikings that dominated them in pool play. However, the DAC coaching staff made adjustments to counter the size of the bigger boys from Watsonville Instead of using their base offense with two wide receivers and one running back, the DAC coaches decided to go to their no huddle offense where they spread out all their receivers. This opened up the game for the DAC offense. They struck first and they struck hard with completions to Matt Powers and Nicholas Athanasopoulos. The DAC defense also held strong with great efforts from Kostas Akoumianakis and Brian Kruger. At the end of the first round playoff game, the DAC Panthers had won 21-6. Thus, setting up the game against the top seed of the tournament, the Windsor Hills Tigers from Las Vegas. After beating them in overtime, the Queensbased team advanced to the champsionship game against the Albany Giants.

The rain predicted for earlier in the day finally arrived. As NFL Flag representative and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiasion made himself available to all the kids, the game announcer introduced the players. The now confident DAC Panthers had beaten the top seed to reach the championship game. The DAC coaching staff, the DAC fans, and the DAC players themselves felt good about their chances against the second seeded Albany Giants. On their first drive, the DAC Panthers opened in their no huddle offense. Quarterback Yianni Gavalas completed passes to Nicholas Athanasopoulos and Eddie Roscigno. On a critical third down play, Matt Powers made an acrobatic one handed catch to give the DAC team a first down. On that same drive, Matt Powers scored to give the DAC boys their first score. At 7-0 the Albany Giants took their first shot at scoring. However, the DAC defense did not allow a completion. On their second drive, the New York City boys scored again. Like the first drive, the now crowd favorite DAC boys drove the length of the field and ended with a pass in the edn zone from Yianni Gavalas to Anthony Libroia. The team from Albany had some fight in them. They came out on their next drive and put up a score of their own to make the score 14-7. At halftime, the DAC coaches wanted to keep the pressure on the opposing defense. Coming out once again in their no huddle offense, quarterback Yianni Gavalas hit a streaking Nicholas Athanasopoulos for yet another score. With a 20-7 lead and the clock reading only seven minutes, the DAC Panthers knew they had the game won. As the clock ticked off the last second of the game, the DAC boys hugged each other and jumped for joy. They knew they were now the 2005 NFL Flag National Champions. All the hard work put forth had yielded them a title that will be never be forgotten. They will forever be the 2005 National Champions