By: David Ware (@davidware)
Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome to Season 22! To say it started with anything less than a bang would be a travesty and injustice! The evening began with our Inside Blitz Podcast, where 125 viewers showed up to support the league as we prepped for the Season 22 Kickoff! Thanks to everyone who showed up! The energy level was great before the first game even kicked off.
The season kicked off with a rematch of the Season 21 National Championship Game and the rematch did not disappoint. It would be fair to say that the first drive of the season set the tone for what we would see all night and hopefully all season. The new season started with a new quarterback at the helm for Texas A&M and it took him just three plays to light up the scoreboard. The drive included two passes which included a 56-yard touchdown pass to generational talent Buck Stackhouse and a 10-yard quarterback scramble by the freshman Malcom Streets.
The Aggies scored their first touchdown of the night at the 42-second mark of the game. The defending champs USC Trojans responded with a methodical 15-play 69-yard drive and capped it off with a Jamesyn Golde Rushing touchdown to even the game up. The Trojans made a point to show off their new weapons in Corey Smith and Dash Delano in their drive and made a statement to the league that the champs reloaded for the season.
Throughout the entire night, the Trojans’ offense marched down the field with precision as they looked in playoff mode already. Texas A&M held on and kept the game close as Streets had a phenomenal debut. With 2:38 minutes left on the clock, Streets found Buck Stackhouse for his third touchdown of the night and second for Stackhouse. Athletic Director Kade Padgett went for the two-point conversion, which would have made it a three-point game. Freshman Tight-end Parker Bever was the target but had to come back to get the ball and momentum pulled him away from the endzone as he was taken down.
Just when it looked like the Aggies were going to try and steal a win from the defending champions, Halfback Skye Mills had a 46-yard kickoff return to swing the momentum back to the Trojans. Much like the Twitch Chat that never gave up last night, the Aggies forced a three-and-out with 1:38 minutes on the clock and one time-out remaining.
On third and 11, Streets took a shot downfield to a streaking Eli Riggins only for Sophomore Jordan Haack to make the defensive play of the night and knock down what would have been the go-ahead touchdown for the Aggies. The Trojans escaped with the win and the CFSL set a regular season record for most viewers in a stream with 175! It was the second most only behind 185 viewers which was a national championship game. The game has already been viewed 1.9k times and is the most viewed game on the Twitch channel!
The second game of the night was just as entertaining and the love that the CFSL nation showed was tremendous. While the CFSL did not break the record set in the first game for viewers, it did have 125 viewers as the highest of the stream and second most views with 1.2k so far on the Twitch channel!
The Smith brothers put on a show as Florida and Penn State had a defensive battle in the first half as the score was 10-10 at halftime. Penn State held the lead till the fourth quarter when Defensive Tackle Michael Vazquez lined up at fullback and rushed in for a one-yard touchdown to give the Gators a 24-20 lead. Penn State Wide receiver Trennel Scott scored his second touchdown of the night at the 6:12 minute mark and Penn State went up 27-20.
The drama continued to unfold as Freshman Tyrone White picked off Quarterback JK Mathews with 4:46 left in the game and returned it to the Penn State six-yard line. Three plays later Florida Quarterback Jack Schmidt found Stacey Smith for the go-ahead touchdown to give the Gators the win and Athletic Director Adam Smith his first win in the Smith Bowl series.
Congratulations to Florida and USC on their huge week one wins and hats off to Penn State and Texas A&M for their exceptional performances. More importantly, congrats to Mike Peters and the admins of the CFSL as Season 22 kicked off with the biggest bang in CFSL history! Thank you to everyone who tuned in last night to help us make history, and I urge you all to tune in for the rest of the games this week, including two tonight!
Until next time, keep your game face on and your spirits high!
