Lakewood moms, youth football winners at first Powder Puff bowl

ARLINGTON — Football talent seems to run in the families of Lakewood and Arlington.

The moms of the Arlington and Lakewood youth football association players put on a show July 18 at a Powder Puff football game to much fanfare, with Lakewood claiming a 16-0 shutout.

“I can’t believe it got this big,” said Arlington organizer Kim Welton about the approximately 1,300 spectators that came out to support both the mothers and youth football, which the game was a benefit for. “Win or lose, we came out and did exactly what we were hoping for.”

While hoping to entertain the local football communities, the game’s main purpose was to provide scholarships for those unable to pay the $200 per season cost of youth football for their child. A total of nearly $5,000 was raised, coming not only from the gate, but also from selling ads in the game’s program and from vendors on site.

As both organizations promised to make this an annual event, earning bragging rights this season was Lakewood, which dominated both sides of the ball in the second half to blow it wide open.

After earning a safety in the first half, the Lakewood moms went into halftime with a 2-0 advantage. The third quarter came and went without incident, but Lakewood’s fourth-quarter fireworks sealed the game.

Holding Arlington inside its own 30-yard-line for nearly the whole second half, coach Don Watts knew it was only a matter of time before the big play would show itself, and it did — in the form of running back Stephanie Neiffer’s 20-yard run along the strong side to the 1-yard line. Quarterback Jahna Smith finished the drive off with a run up the middle.

“It was all about field position,” said Watts. “Especially when you’re dealing with people who haven’t played football before. We wanted to get field position, keep it and just put pressure on the other team to stop us.”

Lakewood then scored on its next drive with the longest play of the day, a 25-yard pass from Sara Schultz to Dana Krueger, who jumped over a huddle of defenders to make the catch about 15 yards out and sprinted past the defense for the score. Named MVP of the game, Krueger had three receptions during the game for 10 yards or more.

“This was fun,” said Krueger, a 1992 Arlington graduate. “It was a culmination of a lot of work and a lot of practice for one game. How many times to you practice for just one game? This was the whole season.”

Arlington was held without a first down until the end of the third quarter when Lisa Kramer hooked up with Michelle Diel for a 10-yard pass, one of Diel’s three receptions on the day.

The two-hand touch game wasn’t complete without a halftime show by Arlington cheerleaders, who happened to be fathers.

Contact Arlington Times Sports Reporter Travis Sherer at tsherer@marysvilleglobe.com or 360 659-1300 Ext. 5054.

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