Powderpuff Thriller: Canton Edges Stoughton High

In what can only be described as a controversial ending, at least from a Stoughton perspective, the beat the Stoughton senior girls, 28-24, in Wednesday's annual .

played host to this year’s game—which went down to the final play, with the two team’s combining for three touchdowns in the final four minutes of action.

Stoughton trailed 22-12 late in the second half, but with 3:37 left, Alicia Macomber broke a 50-yard touchdown run, bringing the Black Knights within four.

On the ensuing Canton drive, the Bulldogs converted a fourth and 12 with less than two minutes to play. The first down would have likely sealed the deal for Canton, but the Bulldogs fumbled at the end of the run, giving Stoughton the ball at their own 24-yard line with 1:32 left in the game.

Macomber had a 26-yard run on the first play of the drive for Stoughton, and then Julia Quattrucci found Chrystal Holland for a 45-yard touchdown pass to put Stoughton ahead 24-22 with 0:55 seconds left. Holland caught the pass in traffic and then separated from the Canton defenders, going untouched into the end zone.

Canton’s Haley Gaughan returned the kickoff down the Bulldogs’ Sideline, past the Stoughton defenders and it looked like she might reach the end zone, but a Stoughton player ran into her around the Stoughton 20-yard line, preventing Gaughan from scoring.

Powderpuff is not tackle football, however—the players wear flags—so the officials called a personal foul against Stoughton and awarded Canton the touchdown, giving the Bulldogs the 28-24 lead with 0:29 left to play.

Stoughton got the ball back at their own 40. On their first play, Macomber, who proved to be hard, if not impossible to stop in the second half, advanced the ball 30 yards to the Canton 30 with nine seconds left.

On the final play of the game, Holland came up with another catch, broke free from her defenders, and appeared as if she was going to score as time expired.

But, a Canton defender ran into Holland at the Stoughton 8-yard line; Holland fell as a result, and the officials ruled her down. While the play was similar to the Canton kickoff return, where officials awarded the Bulldogs a touchdown on a Stoughton personal foul, the Black Knights did not get the call, and the game was over.

Stoughton scored first on an 80-yard touchdown run by Leesa Snyder nine minutes into the game. Hannah Carpenter found Holland for Stoughton’s other first-half touchdown, just eight seconds before halftime.

Vicky Tondre, Michelle McNeil and Kensey Waterman scored the first three Canton touchdowns.

Shannon Brady came up with a key interception for the Bulldogs late in the second half, which set up Canton’s third touchdown, to put the Bulldogs ahead 22-12 at the time.

Stoughton’s Stephanie Amaral had a long touchdown run just 2:15 into the second half, but the play was negated on a Stoughton penalty.

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