Twenty-two teams with 300 total competitors played 65 regular season and playoff games, all leading up to the anticipated Monday night Championship match-up in what was the largest Intramural Football league Brandeis has ever had. The TightEnds took the highly defensive championship game 14-0 with touchdowns late in the first half and early in the second half to shutout the JackHammers 14-0.

At the end of a back-and-forth first half, with both teams still scoreless, TightEnds quarterback Jeff Bourdon '07 found Shane Butland '07 with a 20-yard strike to seize control of the game.

"[The JackHammers] were playing good defense," TightEnds captain Ben Dashefsky '07 said. "But we finally just figured out how to crack them."

Although they missed the point-after attempt, the TightEnds seized the momentum and continued to pound away at their opponents, never giving them an opportunity to get on the board.

Bolstered by an interception by Tim Dunphy '06 with 36 seconds left before halftime, the TightEnds started the second half with a offensive surge and scored the last touchdown of the game with 13:27 left. Bourdon found Dunphy's outstretched arms as the wide receiver dove over the JackHammers defense.

"Dunphey has what we like to call 'magnet hands' in the flag football world," Dashefsky said.

Following the touchdown, the TightEnds went for a two-point conversion, and this time Bourdon found Zach Golden '06 waiting for the throw.

"Bourdon really had great leadership marching down the field," Dashefsky said.

The promise of a comeback enlivened the large night-time crowd as the JackHammers regained composure and began an offensive attack.

The dynamic wide-receiver duo of captain Sidney Coren '07 and Jesse Barglow '07 led the charge down the sidelines, but their hopes for recovery were snatched out of the air when quarterback Eric Horowitz '06 threw an interception to Golden with 11:45 left in the half.

The JackHammers gave one more offensive push with less than two minutes left in the game, moving the ball within yards of the TightEnds' end zone. But Bourdon intercepted an errant throw from Horowitz and made a final dash down the field until his flags were ripped off and the final whistle pierced the air.

"[The JackHammers] played well, but it just wasn't enough," Golden said.

The TightEnds worked their way through the playoffs with hard-nosed defense, blanking the Dirty Pirates in the semifinals 9-0 before beating the Regulators in a 19-12 overtime quaterfinal.

The Jackhammers entered the finals soaring off two high-scoring games. The team breezed through the opening playoff rounds Sunday, handily defeating Mo An' Co in the Quarterfinals 33-9 and the PigSlammers 39-6 in the Semifinals.

After toughing through the playoffs and stifling the Jackhammers offense to take the championship, Dashefsky credited the team's run to its innate defensive aptitude.

"[Tackling in flag-football] is not an acquired skill," Dashefsky said. "It's a god-given talent, and we happen to have a great group of flag grabbers.