The MizzouNYC Tigers captured their third Zog National Title on Saturday November 9th with a 28-27 victory over the previously undefeated “Balls of Fury”. The Tigers came into the playoff as the #2 seed with a regular season record of 10-4. In the first game against the #3 seed, MizzouNYC easily beat “50 Shades of Orange” 42-13 to set up a match-up in the championship game against the #1 seed.
Early into the game, the Fury couldn’t handle MizzouNYC’s frenetic pace, and the Tigers raced out to a 2 TD lead early in the first half. After trading TD’s early in the second half, the tide began to change, and the athleticism of the Fury opened up. With 1 minute left on the game clock, the Fury scored the game tying TD to lead the game into overtime.
Using the college football rules, The Fury won the toss and elected offense first. In three plays, they scored a TD against a tired Tiger defense and quickly tacked on the extra point. MizzouNYC turned to veteran QB Sean O’Rourke to turn the team around. “I knew this team had it in them. We had played with the best team in the league for 46 minutes, and we were beating them…it was time for the Tigers to step up, and that is exactly what they did”, said O’Rourke. O’Rourke connected with sophomore Lauren Hirata between two defenders in the back of the end-zone for the only TD the Tigers needed in OT.
MizzouNYC’s two team captains, Sydney Snider & Johnny Wong, in a move that will go down in history, elected for the 2 point attempt and the win. In play that will be told in Zog-story books, QB O’Rorke took the snap, rolled right with all the receivers headed to the right corner of the end-zone. He used incredible athletic ability to escaped a sack attempt of a furious pass-rusher, spun clockwise on his right foot, and fired a fastball to wide open Senior Nick Dame in the left corner of the end zone. While no watched, 4 members of the team rushed the field to celebrate the winning play. Captain Sydney immediately ran to O’Rourke, bear-hugged him with the rest of the black and gold mob.
After the game, Susan Combs, former captain said , “That was the best team we’ve ever played”, which was quickly followed by Captain Johnny, “Yes and that was the best game this team has ever played”.