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Leon Stops Raiders For Title

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By CRISTINA LEDRA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 4, 2008

BOCA RATON - The Tallahassee Leon Lions could see Plant City quarterback Techonqueyha Shaw coming from a couple hours away as they watched the Raiders on Saturday afternoon in the flag football state championship semifinals.

Her athleticism and speed and 300 all-purpose yards against Jupiter made her their obvious target. Cutting off her lanes and receivers became their main goal. The Lions (17-0) then executed the plan well enough to give the Raiders (15-1) their first loss of the season in the state title game 41-16 to become back-to-back state champs.

"She's a tremendous athlete," Leon coach Bill Epting said. "She runs well and she's able to throw as well. We were able to contain her with our rush a little bit and maybe make her a little bit uncomfortable and then the defense behind that played real well. They were able to knock down some passes early."

Shaw scored the first touchdown of the game, a 21-yard run that put Leon down for the first time all season, awaking the Lions.

Leon tied the game on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Chelsea Parmer to Susanna Zorn on the next drive, then grabbed an interception four plays later and converted that into a TD to take a 14-7 lead.

The Lions went up by another touchdown when they caught an interception on the very next play and drove downfield to score.

Leon had a 28-7 lead by the half and added to its lead throughout the second half.

"We ran the same offense but they were better," Shaw said. "I can say that. I still feel like a winner. We got our trophy. It was a good season."

The game was delayed about 30 minutes in the third quarter after Leon receiver Tiffany Lincoln injured her left arm and was taken away in an ambulance.

To get to the state championship game, the Raiders beat Jupiter 26-19. Shaw threw for four TDs. Samantha Wicker had two TD catches and Articia Bennett had an interception in the end zone near the end of the game.

"We had some difficulty playing such a late game," said Raiders coach Michael Paul, whose team played the semifinal at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and the title game at 7. Leon played at 2 p.m. "We didn't get a lot of time to recover. We can't take away from Leon. They were an outstanding team, state champions, they had experience."

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