After winning the pep rally hours before, the junior class continued to dominate homecoming week after defeating the seniors in the final round of the girls powderpuff game Monday night on Burgess Field.

Powderpuff is an annual homecoming festivity at Geneva High School. Students from each graduating class sign up for a raffle to participate in girl’s flag football, along with boys as coaches. Some teachers and staff members help referee the game as a kickoff to homecoming week.

“I think [powderpuff] is a great way to get everybody involved,” Ms. Heather Gehlhaar said. “Especially the freshman who have never experienced any of this.”

It was known the juniors were a force to be reckoned with after they heavily dominated the pep rally during the day.

“I think winning the pep rally gave us some extra confidence going into powderpuff” Junior Caroline Madden said.

During the first round, it is a battle consisting of seniors versus freshman and juniors versus sophomores.

Ever since freshman year, the class of 2023 have not lost a first-round matchup. In 2019, they upset the seniors during their freshman year and won the overall powderpuff competition as juniors. There was no doubt they weren’t going down without a fight this year.

“We were all very excited to participate in powderpuff one last time,” Senior Hannah McMillen said. “Since winning last year we were hopeful to win again.”

The seniors went on to defeat the freshman in a close match throughout the whole game.

“[Our team] went on the field ready to play,”  she said. “We knew we had some pressure because we were missing players due to other things, but we were ready to beat the freshman.”

As the juniors faced the sophomores, they set the tone and scored a touchdown within the first few minutes. After the initial touchdown the momentum was still high and there was no going back. The juniors continued to dominate and lead the game until the very end.

“We were really hoping to beat the sophomores since we are older,” Madden said. “Everyone was anxious throughout the whole game, but winning was extremely thrilling.”

The final matchup became a battle of the upperclassmen.

“Its not shocking to see upperclassmen in the final round,” Ms. Gehlhaar said “When I was watching everyone practice, juniors were really working on their plays and setting things up.”

The championship game ended with the juniors winning with final score of “7-0.” The score may not be high, but the energy was through the roof on the juniors side line once the buzzer sounded.

“It didn’t hurt to lose because I had friends on the other team, so I celebrated with them,” McMillen said. “We won last year, and it would have been nice to win again.”

As homecoming week concluded, the juniors came out on top and defeated the other graduating classes.