At (4-1), the Eagles led the pack in the Jewish Community Center of Bayonne’s Indoor Flag Football Senior Division, while the Chargers (2-5) were hoping to stay in the hunt. The Eagles struck paydirt first as Anthony “TD” Morrone out-leaped two defenders to give his squad a 6-0 lead. Four plays later, the Chargers answered as Janaaron Aquino reeled in a TD strike, followed by James Johnson’s two-point sprint for an 8-6 Chargers’ lead. After trading picks in the early going with Adrianna Morrone and Jaime Betancur snatching errant pass attempts, both teams’ offenses seemed to settle in.
Trailing by two, the Eagles once again put the ball in the hands of Anthony Morrone, who zipped 20 yards for a TD. The Eagles then made it 14-8 when James Bajor hauled in a two-point grab off an option pass. The Eagles’ running game became a factor in the second half as Ryan Ballance and Justin DeCicco bulled the ball up court. With the ball deep in Chargers’ territory, the Eagles cashed in as James Bajor held onto a TD dart. Anthony Morrone’s two-point reception made it 22-8, Eagles.
It took the Chargers less than six seconds to make it a 22-16 bout, as Malachi Smith rocketed wire to wire and Jaime Betancur tacked on the two-point conversion. Malachi Smith then pilfered an Eagles’ pass attempt to really heat things up as the donnybrook went on. After an eight-yard run by Jan Patrick Egan and two key catches by Michael Tedesco, the Chargers were five yards away from the Eagles’ goal line. Only leading by six points, the Eagles’ defense drew a line in the sand and forced the Chargers’ offense to go three-and-out as the clock became a huge factor.
Although the game plan was to work time off the clock, tight coverage by the Chargers’ defense forced Anthony Morrone off his base rout, which resulted in a goal-to-goal TD bomb. Morrone made it 28-16 with under two minutes remaining. With the Chargers moving down field, the Eagles’ Anthony Morrone sealed the victory with an interception on his own three-yard line as the Eagles held on, 28-16.