The Antilles School Hurricanes Middle School Flag Football Team won their third consecutive championship Tuesday evening against Julius Sprauve School (JESS) 12-6 at the 2024 Viya Bull and Bread Bowl at the Joseph Aubain Ballpark.
The St. Thomas/St. John Interscholastic Athletic Association (IAA) held what was formally known as the Turkey Bowl on Tuesday evening. Due to the earlier start of the academic school year, a new day was designated to host the annual culminating event of flag football season. Over the decades, the company known as Viya, Innovative, and VITELCO has faithfully supported the St. Thomas/St. John IAA by fully sponsoring this event.
This year’s program was originally scheduled to play on Nov. 1, D. Hamilton Jackson Day. However, days of rain and the forecast of evening thunderstorms forced organizers to move the event to Tuesday.
The first game was the Middle School Division Championship Game between first-place team Antilles Hurricanes and the JESS Seagulls, who were the second seed.
Malakai Nieboer got the Hurricanes’ scoring started early, running in a 10-yard touchdown 4:09 into the game. The Hurricanes doubled their score in the third quarter as Nieboer caught a 50-yard bomb from quarterback Sareem Asfour, giving Antilles a comfortable 12-0 lead. That would have been the final score, but the coaching staff of the Hurricanes decided to throw the ball with two seconds left in the game. Seagull defender Joseph Pagan intercepted the pass and took it all the way to the house and scored. The final score of the game was 12-6.
The Seagulls recorded four interceptions in the game. Ke’Ano Scatliffe collected two, and Dominic Graf and Pagan each had one.
The second game of the evening was the Middle School All-Star Game. The Bertha C Boschulte Middle School (BCB) was paired with JESS to make the Green Team. Antilles School, Gifft Hill School, and All Saints Cathedral School combined to make up the Pink Team. This was a very entertaining game.
Antilles’ Nieboer put his prints on this game early as he took a handoff from the 35-yard line and scampered into the end zone to kick off the scoring with 2:10 remaining in the first quarter. On the first play of the Green Team’s next possession, Antilles School, Torry Griffin intercepted the ball and ran it back for a touchdown. Hurricanes quarterback found Armani Pickering of Gifft Hill for the two-point conversion, giving the Pink Team a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Green Team came alive in the second. BCB’s quarterback, I’am Williams, found JESS’s Pagan for a 40-yard touchdown, putting the Green Team on the board. Williams then threw a second touchdown strike to Re’Kye Hodge from BCB in the quarter. This made the score 14-12 going into halftime.
Hodge snagged his second interception of the game in the third. He returned it 62 yards, completing what is known as a pick-six. This gave the Green Team their only lead of the game, 18-14.
The Green Team’s lead was short-lived as the Pink Team drove the ball down the field. Asfour connected with Griffin on a 10-yard touchdown pass to give their team a two-point lead at the end of the third quarter.
The Pink Team added two more scores, a 10-yard run by Kallen Payne and a pick-six by Nieboer, giving the Pink Team 32 points. Scatliffe ended the scoring with a TD run late in the contest for the Green Team. The final score was 32-24.
This wraps up the St. Thomas/St. John IAA 2024 Flag Football Season. The IAA leadership would like to thank Viya for its continued support of this annual event.
