Giants fall short to the Packers

Giants33
Packers45

Under the quarterbacking leadership of Charles Buky, the Packers brought their season record to 2-2 with an exciting win over the Giants Thursday in the Anna Maria Island Community Center’s 30 and over co-ed flag football league. Despite great diversity and teamwork, the Giants could not capture their first win, but kept it close until the last 10 minutes of the game.

With seven touchdowns, Scott Flisio was the target of Buky throughout night. The second play of the game, at their own five-yard line, Buky found Flisio deep down field for the first score of the evening. With the missed extra point, the Packers quickly went up 0-6. The one-two punch of Flisio-Buky soon connected again taking the game to 0-13.

The Giants answered back with 12 minutes left in the first half. Quarterback Jason Sato lead his team down the field and ended the strong drive with a run by Jesse Brisson from the Giants 10-yard line. Brisson’s speed and agility tightened the score to 6-13.

It would not take long before Buky found Flisio again to put six more points on the scoreboard for the Packers. With a surprise option, Sato pitched the football to Greg Ross, who launched a bomb from the Giants’ own 15-yard line to Sato, who was able to beat one defender to score the second touchdown for the Giants. Frank Agnelli scored the first point after of the evening, taking the score to 13-19.

In the high scoring contest, the Packers continued to drive the ball with a pass taking Will Schenerlein to the Giants’ 10-yard line that lead to another touchdown. The Giants continued to knock on the Packers’ door answering with a touchdown and extra point of their own by Agnelli. With seven seconds left on the clock, the Packers scored another touchdown pass from Buky to Flisio. The extra point was scored by the Packers’ lone female player, Katlyn Lemmond.

The hurry up offense of the Giants successfully ended the first half of the game with another long ball by Sato to Agnelli just as the last second ticked off the clock. With the point after, the Giants found themselves only down by one touchdown.

The back and forth battle continued into the second half. The Giants started the half off with a bang, quickly scoring seven points with a short pass to Brisson, who ran it in for the touchdown. Ross tied up the game with his extra point reception, bringing the score to 33-33.

Bucky hit Flisio again after a 20-yard gain by Jim Ptack, scoring another touchdown. The Giants took over possession looking to tie up the score again, but were held to three snaps before having to give the ball back to the Packers. Uncharacteristically, the Packers were not able to find the end zone during this possession, giving the Giants another chance to tie the game.

The Giants’ controlled the ball, marching it down the field and gaining first down yardage with a short throw from Sato to Ross across mid-field. Sato hit Ross again for a 10-yard gain. Seeing the end zone, Sato scrambled and was chased out of the pocket by Lemmond. Just before crossing the line of scrimmage, Sato launched the ball to Ross for a large gain short of the goal line. The Giants offense walked off the field disappointed after Sato could not connect with Agnelli.

Flisio caught two more passes for the Packers. On third down, Buky hits Flisio long just past the Giant defender for the last Packer touchdown of the evening. With 59 seconds left in the game, the Giants worked the field. Sato’s long pass to Agnelli was tipped by Flisio causing an incomplete pass. Two more Giants’ snaps closed out the game with a 33-45 victory for the Packers.

The Packers face the Raiders at 8 p.m. on Thursday. The Raiders had their first loss of the season against the still undefeated Chargers. At 9 p.m., the Giants play the Vikings, who beat the Chiefs in last week’s match up. The Chiefs go head-to-head against the Chargers at 7 p.m. to start the night’s adult football action.