Both teams playing in Monday night’s intramural Game of the Week are blessed with experience in high-pressure situations; however, the Wildcats’ experience has come in flag football games while Stammerin has more experience in the courtroom.

Stammerin, a team comprised entirely of law students, is playing together for the first time this season, while the Wildcats have existed for the past 12 years with various players.

The teams have been involved in close games many times this year.

Experience on the field won out, as the Wildcats survived a close one to win the first-round Choice level playoff game 27-24.

“We have some big hopes this tournament,” said Wildcat captain Andrew Bruns.

“We’ve been in these situations before, and we don’t think there is any team out there that’s better than us in close games. We’ve won B league before, and two years ago we competed in the flag football national championship in New Orleans,” he said.

The Wildcats went 3-2 in that national tournament two years ago and almost went 0-1 in the intramural playoffs this year. The first-round game, which consisted of big play after big play, came down to the final snap.

Stammerin had the ball at the Wildcat 20-yard line with only three seconds to go and down by three.

With no field goals allowed in flag football, they had one play to score a touchdown and win the game.

Quarterback Sean Malone faced heavy pressure from two Wildcat rushers and was forced to dump the ball off to Aaron Johnston, near the line of scrimmage, who could only scamper for seven yards, well short of the end-zone.

“Any game that close depends on just a couple of plays,” said Stammerin captain Brant Rhoad. “Unfortunately we weren’t like the Buckeyes this year – we didn’t get the bounces when we needed them. It was a tough loss to a good team.”

One crucial bounce came near the end of the third quarter. Trailing 20-18, Stammerin got the ball first to start the second half and methodically drove down the field, chewing up the clock as they approached the Wildcat goal-line.

With just one minute left in the quarter, Stammerin was only 17 yards away from scoring, which would give them at least a four point lead. But the drive was not meant to be.

Malone dropped back, again faced heavy pressure from two rushers and tried a short pass across the field, but Wildcat linebacker Tim Beyke stepped in and made a clean pick. Beyke sprinted 60 yards down the left sideline for the momentum-changing touchdown.

“That interception was huge,” Bruns said. “Our defense was playing strong all day except for a couple long bombs they had on us.”

Part of the reason Malone threw the ball so quickly was the unexpected pressure he faced. A majority of the game the Wildcats only sent one rusher, giving Malone more time to survey the field but allowing more defenders to play the back third of the field.

The exception was the big interception when the ‘Cats sent two players in and Malone had to unload the ball fast to avoid a sack.

After that score, Beyke spiked the ball in the end-zone and was called for excessive celebration, pushing the soon-to-be critical one-point conversion try back 15 yards.

Instead of only needing three yards to get the PAT, the Wildcats needed 18. They managed to punch it in anyway to take the lead by nine.

“Championship teams make championship plays,” said Wildcats quarterback Brad Ranley.

With one quarter to play, Stammerin was not about to abandon hope. They quickly drove the length of the field and Malone found Rhoad for a seven-yard score to put the team down by three, 24-27. With the clock winding down, they were forced to go for a three-point conversion from the 15-yard line to tie the game at 27, but the attempt came up short.

“You come out to play the game and you expect to go all the way,” Rhoad said. “Anytime you have a heartbreaking loss like that, it’s tough to take.”

The Wildcats got the ball back and likely would have been able to run out the clock by keeping the ball on the ground, but instead they tried to make things interesting by going for a Hail Mary down the sideline with just under 90 seconds to play.

The pass fell incomplete, stopping the clock and forcing the Wildcats to punt and play defense one more time.

“We thought we would catch them on their heels, try to burn them and rub it in their noses a little bit,” Ranley said of the pass. “It turned out to almost get the best of us.”

In the end, the Wildcats won another flag football game and advanced to the Final Four of their bracket.

Now they have even more experience under their belt.