by George Angelidis, staff reporter
The Ravens took a safety to waste some precious seconds of the clock in the 4th quarter. They had to punt the ball with six seconds left and tackle the return man, then they would be Superbowl XLVII champions. Sam Koch punted the ball high up in the air, they would successfully tackle Ted Ginn Jr. as the clock struck zero. The Baltimore Ravens are Superbowl XLVII champions.
The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens battled for the most prestigious award in all of football on February 3rd, Superbowl XLVII. This Superbowl took place in “the big easy” New Orleans.
Baltimore was surely motivated and inspired by the return of their leader, their captain of the defense, Ray Lewis who came back from tearing his triceps earlier in the year. Ray Lewis also said that this game would be his last game in his legendary 17 year career, which surely motivated his teammates.
“If Ray Lewis didn’t come back from his injury several weeks before expected, which greatly motivated all his teammates, the Ravens would not have won the Superbowl,” junior Peter Ikariou said.
The game started as Baltimore took control and took an early lead. Baltimore led 21-6 at halftime and were in comfortable control of the game. After a great halftime show from Beyonce when play resumed Jacoby Jones ran back a 109 yard kickoff return to give the Ravens a 22 point lead.
“This was a huge play in the game. It gave the Ravens a 3 touchdown lead which very few teams come back from,” said freshman Dean Zouvelos.
Soon after the Ravens took their 22 point lead there was a power outage in the stadium which caused for a 34 minute delay. This break in action was a huge momentum changer and gave the 49ers a much needed spark. The 49ers would then score 20 consecutive points to make it a ballgame.
There was also a heavily debated holding no call against the Ravens late in the 4th quarter which forced the 49ers to turn the ball over on downs, a huge call which greatly impacted the game.
“That was clearly holding. I didn’t care who won the game to be honest because my team wasn’t in it but i’m not going to lie the refs blew the game for the 49ers who fought so hard to get back into the game,” said junior Steve Zouvelos.
Baltimore would eventually ice the game and win their second career Superbowl, 34-31.