Football in America is the king of sports,
\nA game of speed and strategy, finesse and force.
\nFrom high school to pro, fierce rivalries grow
\nFans add fanaticism to a majestic gridiron show. <\/p>\n
At the westernmost reaches of America\u2019s dream
\nLay two islands, each with their own football team.
\nSeven times, Saipan and Guam vied on the field.
\nSeven times, Guam\u2019s superiority was revealed. <\/p>\n
The Marianas Bowl overflowed with wins by guam
\nWho won every which way, including the bomb.
\nOne game was eighty to zip, sorry to say, it was.
\nSix-Seven-Oh could not win. Why? Just because.<\/p>\n
The day, may 26, the year 2018.
\nThe sun burned airport field mean.
\nThe heat index hit 109, highest of the year.
\nFans didn\u2019t care, they came out to cheer. <\/p>\n
Guam took the opening kickoff and fumbled.
\nThe Sharks defense held as the visitors stumbled.
\nSaipan\u2019s first drive looked promising, Norita to Jones
\nAs they advanced the pigskin between the cones.<\/p>\n
The players clashed, bodies smashed and heads bashed.
\nUnfortunately for the Sharks, their first drive crashed.
\nGuam\u2019s offense wanted to go long.
\nToo bad for them, they threw to Taitingfong.<\/p>\n
The first quarter ended in a tie with no score.
\nThe squads sweat buckets but wanted more.
\nThe second period started out quite well
\nFor the winless team, that we could tell.\t<\/p>\n
Fitial was a big hit for the Sharks offense.
\nThe passing attack was making sense.
\nSo did handing off to Toilolo.
\nDown the field \u2013 go, go, go.<\/p>\n
Sharks break the goose egg on the board
\nOn a pass to Jones, that\u2019s how we scored.
\nNot done, on third and forty-one
\nHartzel came up huge, we weren\u2019t done.<\/p>\n
Before the halftime clock could expire
\nThe sharks scored again, we were on fire.
\nKaipat\u2019s conversion made it twenty-zip.
\nFirst time Guam was having a bad trip.<\/p>\n
Third quarter, Toilolo was a vicious ball carrier
\nSixty-three yards, knocking down every barrier.
\nGuam responded with their deepest drive.
\nAlvarez led the visitors inside the five. <\/p>\n
With the shutout threatened the D stood tall.
\nStandish, Grow and all made a formidable wall.
\nGuam never did score that fateful day
\nThis time the cnmi boys came to play.<\/p>\n
The losing streak finally came to an end.
\nCelebration lasted all memorial day weekend.
\nThe beautiful Marianas bowl stayed on Saipan.
\nFor the sharks, that was always the game plan.<\/p>\n
The final tally was twenty-six to nothing.
\nThat victory for this team was really something.
\nThis was our whole season too, you know.
\nYeah, CNMI, we won one in a row!<\/p>\n
Bob Coldeen (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong> Football in America is the king of sports, A game of speed and strategy, finesse…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":322001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBob Coldeen is a longtime TV journalist in the CNMI and is news director\/reporter of KSPN 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"