Menifee JAAF Superbowl Sunday

The following was submitted by Dave Fokken, a coach at one of the two Menifee JAAF teams that played for their respective championship games last Sunday.

If you missed Super Bowl Sunday at the Paloma Valley High School you missed some great football games!

The Division 3 Micro Super Bowl game was a defensive battle between the Menifee Wildcats and the Perris Patriots. The Patriots scored almost immediately to take a 6-0 lead and most likely thought they had the championship in the bag but they did not know what type of team they were up against. The Menifee team started the season 1-3 and could have easily given up on the season. These boys knew they had it in them to become a winning team and got together and decide to rededicate themselves to work harder and focus on becoming a TEAM.

Seven straight wins later they were in the Super Bowl, down 6 points and were not about to give up. They scored on a 75 yard run by their Tailback in the second quarter to tie the game at 6-6. After a long run the Tailback said in the huddle for the extra point, "I am not too tired coach, I can get the extra point." Sure enough, with some great blocking once again, he scored on another run around the right side to give the Wildcats a 7-6 lead.

The rest of the game was defense dominated, mainly by the Wildcats. They sacked the quarterback twice, intercepted a pass and stopped the Patriots several times on their 4th down attempts. In the end the Wildcats ran out the clock with some power blocking and running to win the Conference Championship. No one would have guessed a group of 8, 9, and 10 year old boys who struggled in the beginning of the season, would end up Super Bowl Champions. No one but the boys of course.

The Division 3 Jr. Peewee game was an offensive explosion. It was a rematch of the Menifee Wildcats vs. Corona Chargers who in regular season played a double overtime game. The Chargers charged out to a 16-6 lead just to see the Wildcats charged back themselves with their second kickoff return of the game and a touchdown pass to make it Chargers 22 Wildcats 20 at the end of the Third Quarter.

The Chargers extended the lead to 28-22 with 6 minutes left in the game but the Wildcats came right back on a 40 yard Touchdown pass to make it 28-26 with 3 minutes left. The Wildcats defense forced a 4 and out but there was only 1 minute left in the game thus they ran out of time on the Chargers 20 yard line as time expired.

The Menifee Jr. Peewee team turned out to be the surprise team of their Conference. They pretty much dominated everyone they played. The Corona team was the only one to beat them all year. Congratulations Jr. Peewee Wildcats on an AWESOME 9-2 season! We are very proud of you!

This turned out of be a great year for JAAF Menifee Chapter. Several more teams made the playoffs and had great seasons but most importantly…hundreds of boys and young men had a great year learning what you can achieve with hard work and discipline, learning what it means to have sportsmanship and understanding how to set personal and team goals and what it takes to meet those goals and of course…had fun making a lot of new friends.

Congratulations Boys, Coaches, Parents, JAAF Menifee Chapter, on another great year of Menifee Wildcat Football!

Congratuations to everyone involved for putting Menifee on the JAAF football map!