For the next two months, the "F" in Farmingdale stands for flag, as in Flag Football. That's because every Sunday at Woodward Parkway Field more than 400 boys and girls are participating in PAL Flag Football. The league's second season kicked off Sunday under beautiful, sunny skies, absolutely perfect conditions to begin what people are calling the best game in town. This year, the league added a girls division with four teams learning, competing and having fun. Here are some highlights from week one.

The Jets beat the Vikings 28-14 powered by an outstanding offensive performance by Christina Lopilato. Christina scored three times including a 70 yard run from scrimmage on the first play of the game. Andrea Lopilato added a two point conversion with an end around run. Maggie Fleming scored a touchdown and added a two point conversion as well. Maddie Reilly had two nice plays on the ground for about 20 yards.

On defense the Jets were tough. Great rushing from Megan Draghi, Jules Mullane and Sarah Hecht made it difficult for the Vikings to convert. The Vikings hung tough and scored 14 points, but the Jets managed to stay on top in this contest. League Director Denis Donovan told the Lady Jets, "girls you've made history in Farmingdale today and could be the first all-girls football team to record a victory...congratulations".

Congratulations also go to the Lady Giants and Lady Browns who played a fantastic game with the Giants winning 25-7. All the girls played great. Gina Ramos, Julie Teller, Colleen Patterson scored for the Giants. Great "D" from Marisa Martone, Kali Morrison, Alexandra Mosiello, Nicole Scimeca and Kristen Morrison. It was a great game and fun for everyone. The girls can't wait to "tackle" their next game.

The Raiders turned in a great team effort in their season opener against the Patriots. The offense was lead by Connor Doran, Brendan Gallagher and Lucas Sowers, each coming up with long TD runs. The defense was anchored by Jake Hueskin, Sean Moloney, Tyler Moloney, Sean Sookraj and Max Sturm who demonstrated great team pursuit and flag pulling skills in defending a very talented Patriots squad. The boys showed outstanding team work and had a lot of fun in the first outing of what promises to be a great season.

The Chiefs and Jets squared off in a high scoring battle. The Chiefs had a nice TD pass from Conner Costarella to Tim Dolan as well as long runs from Anthony Morante and Will Hroch in his flag football debut. Sean McCann led the Chiefs' defense with an interception and outstanding pursuit by Paul Morante.

This past Sunday, there was a rematch of the real life NFL Super Bowl when the Peanut Division Patriots took on the Peanut Eagles - and the two teams did not disappoint.

After the Eagles scored on their initial drive, the Patriots answered back for the team's first touchdown of the season with a nice pass from CJ Demers to Justin DiLeonardo who ran the length of the field for the score. CJ also added a touchdown of his own later in the game on a running play and the scoring did not end there. Anthony Barbuto and Dean Pagano both scored their first flag football touchdowns for the year. While the Eagles did their share of scoring, Kevin DiLeonardo, who added a touchdown himself, showed great pursuit on defense crossing the field on one play and making a touchdown-stopping pull of the flag.

It was a great start of the season for the Peanut Patriots!

The Jets and Packers played their 2005 season opener Sunday, with the Jets narrowly defeating the Packers in a closely fought 31 to 28 game. The Packers grabbed the lead on their opening drive when Kyle Garry hit Eddie Fronckwicz for one of his two touchdown receptions. The Jets quickly responded on their first possession with their own touchdown drive. The first half ended with the Packers ahead by the slim margin of 20 to 19 due to key defensive play of Rob Tempesta and Sean Sullivan.

The second half was closely contested. With time running out and the Packers losing by the slim margin of 31 to 28, the Packers needed to get their offense back on the field. Anthony Bonnilla answered the call with a timely interception. Down by three, the Packers offense drove down the field culminating with Ray Webb's pass reception on the Jets' one yard line with less than a minute to play in the game. With the outcome of the game in the balance, the Jets defense kept the Packers out of their end zone on the final two Packer offensive plays, giving the Jets a well deserved opening day victory.

For the JV Jets, their win was the result of a total team effort. Of special note this Sunday was the play of Evan Saur who scored twice on catch and run plays. Dominick Cotrone and Vicent Mavaro shined as quarterbacks and they both scored touchdowns. Brian Mazza had a TD and a key defensive play to end the game. Matthew Santamaria had an interception while playing safety with reckless abandon and really looked like he was having fun out there. Finally, Fred Kezer and Nicholas Ditranto both did a nice job on defense in their flag football debuts.

The JV Falcons opened their season with an impressive 40-12 win over the Steelers. The tone was set on the opening play when Mike Neglia hit Chris Roth with a TD bomb. Joe Morante and Anthony McKnight led the defense grabbing numerous flags helping to shut down the Steeler offense and hold them to only two touchdowns. Bobby McKnight, Dustin Schrimpe, Paul Ashford and Chris Roth all scored for the Falcons in their all-around team victory.

The first week jitters and one practice were evident when the Jets played the Browns handing them a quick 19 point lead. The Jets settled down with some great pass rushing by Bill Specht and Thomas Pich. The Jets came back strong in the closing seconds of the first half with some great run and catches by Steve Kayola and John Santamaria. Perry Dimarco made some good pass plays as did Alex Brosnan. In the end the Jets had a chance to win it but came up short. The final score: 38-31. They never gave up!

The game between the Vikings and the Patriots was tightly contested and hard fought. The offensive unit led by quarterback Brian Mahon who opened the scoring with a touchdown pass to Joseph Edwards. The Patriots responded and closed to within for points. Key defensive plays by Devin Bartlett, Mike Tuzzolo, Thomas Gehlbach and Russell Schwartz stopped scoring drives by the Patriots. This exciting game was sealed by a touchdown pass from Joseph Kennedy to Nick Ceriello with one minute to go in the game. The final score was 43-33. All players had a great time.

Note: Coaches get your players in the paper. Send game summaries to gmazza@optonline.net.