On Monday the 11th, the WHB senior and junior girls went head to head out on the turf for an intense game of flag football to raise money for the Student Government’s Adopt-a-family. Westhampton Beach junior girls took home the 2023 Powderpuff crown, winning 30-21 against the seniors. 

Each team’s coaches were varsity football players. Four refs officiated the game, two junior and two senior boys. William Gambino, the senior’s coach, expected “absolute domination,” and were upset and frustrated when they did not meet this goal. “I had high expectations for my players. Many told me they were ready,” Gambino said. 

Junior coach Finn Drake said, “We played a great game out there today. It was a rough first half trailing the seniors by two points but then we came back to put up 18. We tried our best to utilize Lily Graves athleticism to dominate the senior class.” The juniors were trailing by two due to missed extra points. 

Haley Waszkelewicz, the senior MVP, said it was the “downfall of the seniors” and the juniors bested them. She says, “Our team’s offense was off and we couldn’t catch the ball and that led us to not completing a pass.” The offense was left with no way to move the ball down field.  

Junior Lily Graves led the juniors by scoring three touchdowns. Lily was the junior MVP for her performance, but gave a lot of credit to her quarterback. Graves said, “I had the most help from junior QB Luciana Riley, who had been slinging the ball all around the field and making incredible plays with her impressive spin move.”

The juniors were the second class to beat the seniors, who also lost last year, to the class of 2023. The Powderpuff game was a huge success and raised $837 this year, for Adopt-a-family.