Everyone and their grandmothers knows that the Nazareth Academy football team is one of the best in the West Suburbs. However, the undefeated, Julian Love-led squad wasn’t even the best in La Grange Park last weekend, let alone the best to grace the sacred turf of Valenta Stadium. Hint: The “grandmothers,” or so this superior team was nicknamed by its opponent, had something to do with it.

Maybe this squad wasn’t La Grange Park’s best in terms of talent, or win margin, or number of “pancake” blocks. But only one of these two Nazareth football teams faced and overcame a down-to-the-wire, nail-biting, playbook-throwing ball game, and that team is known all over the school as the senior powderpuff squad. And after their 22-14 victory over a junior team led by Emma “Megatron” Decker, they’re also commonly known throughout the student body as champions — a label they will boast for the rest of their Nazareth careers, and possibly their lives as well.

“Coach Brady always told us to ‘not eat the cheese,’ which is a Coach Racki saying for ‘don’t lose yourself in the hype.’ So we did everything we could to stay away from it,” said star running back Mary Grace Chizewski, who literally ran over everything en route to a 200-plus rushing yards performance and an earning of the Nolan Dean Player of the Game award by the senior coaching staff. “When I had the ball in my hands, I knew that the cheese stood no chance against these wheels.”

The seniors accidentally allowed an early touchdown by junior Lelandra Randle and accidentally trailed for a large portion of the game. Head Coach Brady Ryan, Offensive Coordinator Daniel Linares, and Defensive Coordinator Griffen “Bob” Wilson, however, would not accept this accidental losing, and helped rally the team to victory through a last-minute touchdown run by none other than Mary Grace “The Messiah” Chizewski. Stellar play by quarterbacks Riley Burchett and Sydney Stancik, running backs Emily Beedie and Gabby Perez, linebacker Maggie “Seventh String, Left Bench” O’Connell, and left tackle Emylee “Vending Machine With Legs” Zdarsky, among all others, powered the team to a win they not only expected, but deserved.

The seniors celebrated their win on Monday with a victory video that students witnessed in all lunches. The film, which was directed and produced by standout center Rory Svoboda, proved that the loss befell the juniors, who at least didn’t fall as hard as senior Hannah Guinn did on the sidewalk at the thirty-second mark. To both teams’ relief, Guinn rebounded from her minor injury and was able to fully participate in the annual event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQpFrEO508I

Although the video as a whole covers much of the atmosphere leading up to the game, our reporters at the Announcer were left with one question unanswered after the final buzzer sounded: What exactly motivated the seniors to win this game?

Allie Cipra was quick to answer. “I couldn’t let this be the last game with my girls,” she said. “Everything starts with family when it comes to senior powderpuff.”

And on Saturday, it ended with a victory — a triumph the seniors will never let each other nor the opponent forget.