In a battle of regular season co-champions, The Flame Knights held on to an early 13-0 lead to beat the Martinis Above Fourth Eagles 31-25 to win the San Diego American Flag Football (SDAFFL) championship on June 10.

The last time these two teams met, on May 20, the Knights were victorious 35-18.

The Knights were definitely the fresher team early on. Curtis Gammons’ 15-yard pass to Kory Chambers opened the scoring. Brian Wilburn caught a short toss on the extra point conversion to give the Knights an early 7-0 lead.

The Eagles appeared to tie the score on a clutch catch in the end zone by Brandon Culley, but the play was called back due to a penalty. The Knights took advantage of the Eagles’ mishap and kept them out of the end zone.

Grabbing the opportunity to build on the Knights’ lead, Gammons led their offence down the field again to find Chambers for another touchdown and a 13-0 lead.

On the next possession, the Eagles’ offense retaliated and marched down the field as Jesse Remar found his favorite target, Jim Giacobbe, in the end zone for a touchdown to close the Knights’ lead to 13-6.

Right before halftime, Remar connected on another touchdown pass to Jason Hefley to cut the Knights’ lead to 13-12 at halftime.

During the second half, the Knights pushed their lead back to 7 points when Gammons connected with Chambers alone in the end zone for a touchdown and a 25-18 lead.

The Eagles retaliated with time running out in the game as Remar tossed a pass over the middle and found Eagles captain H.T. Bennett to cut the Knights’ lead back to 1 point at 25-24.

Needing the extra point to tie the game during the conversion play, Remar threw the ball into traffic in the center of the end zone to Todd May, who came away with the ball and the game was tied 25-25.

With five untimed plays until a possible overtime, on the last play of the game, Gammons ran the ball in from the 2-yard line for the decisive touchdown.

“I am really proud of my team – to have to play back-to-back games and come within one play of the championship,” Bennett said.

The Knights’ captain, Shon Anderson, was pleased with the Knights’ teamwork.

“We all knew and trusted each other’s skill level that we could score any time we wanted to. Our main thing was to have fun and laugh the whole time, even in the huddle,” he said. “Our quarterback, Curtis [Gammons] – without him, we probably would not have had our offense running as smooth as it ran. A lot of people came through and made big plays.”

Anderson also lauded the play of Eric Gorman, who made a key catch late in the game.

The Knights beat the fourth-seeded Bacchus House Gladiators 18-6 in their semifinal game.

After trailing 13-12 at halftime, the Eagles made it to the championship game, slipping past the Pecs Gators 31-27.

The Knights finished with a 9-2 record, while the Eagles posted an 8-3 overall record.

The SDAFFL awards ceremony took place at Bourbon Street on June 11. The Knights’ Brian Wilburn was named Offensive MVP. Defensive MVP was awarded to the Gladiators’ Doug Komlenic. Remar won the Rookie of the Year award for the Eagles, while the Gators’ Steve Cramsie won Most Improved. The Ivan Solis Spirit Award was given to the Gators’ Julius Williams.