Spring flag football season starts Published March 9, 2012 By Mike W. Ray Staff Writer TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The base spring flag football season opened Tuesday evening with four blustery games. Air Force Reserve White -- which won the fall championship after an undefeated season - resumed its winning ways by walloping the Navy's Iron Men, 33-6. Strategic Communications Wing One returned the favor by beating Reserve Gold, 31-13; the Gym Rats trounced Reserve Red, 53-8; and the 72nd Medical Group defeated the 552nd Air Control Networking Squadron, 27-14. The score was 15-6 at the end of the first half. White quarterback Jim Gasaway threw touchdown passes to Ken Sarsycki and Brandon Thompson, and Jim Sherman tacked on a safety, while the Iron Men scored on a TD spiral from quarterback James Hinnenkamp to Michael Rankin. In the third quarter, Gasaway dashed untouched down the left sideline for another TD, but the hike from center on the extra-point-attempt was errant so the PAT failed. White opened the fourth quarter with a TD toss from Gasaway to Sherman, raising the score to 27-6; again the PAT was no good. Thompson intercepted a Hinnenkamp pass to halt the Iron Men on their next drive. With only five minutes remaining on the clock, Gasaway lobbed another touchdown pass to Thompson, ending the tally at 33-6. With a couple of well-placed passes and a quarterback keeper, SCW1 field general Shawn Ballard advanced his team to the Reserve Gold 5-yard line. From there he tossed a scoring pass to David Crocker, and added two more points on a quarterback keeper. Score: 8-0. Subsequently Gold QB Randy Schell dropped the ball in the endzone, for a safety that gave CW1 two more points: 10-0. After Gold's Brett Nims intercepted a Ballard pass, Schell drove Gold to the SCW 23-yard line. From there, Schell heaved a TD strike to Nims, then passed to Nims for the extra point. Score: 10-7. Ballard advanced SCW with a pass and scrambled 34 yards on a keeper, which had SCW1 knocking on the door at the Gold 21. However, Ballard was intercepted again, this time by Gold's Tom Carter. Gold proceeded back downfield, but Crocker intercepted a Schell pass to kill the drive. On SCW1's ensuing possession, Kyle Coe sprinted the length of the field for a touchdown, and Ballard lobbed a strike to Mark Hearn for the extra point. The score at halftime stood at 17-7. Opening the second half, a pass from Schell to Nims put Reserve Gold within scoring distance, and a pass-interference call advanced the ball to the 10-yard line. Robert Doty scored on a pass from Schell, but the PAT pass was intercepted by Coe. Score: 17-13. On SCW1's next possession, Ballard scrambled the length of the field for a TD, raising the score to 23-13, but his PAT pass was intercepted by Schell. Gold made little headway on their next possession, and SCW1 took over on downs at the Gold 23-yard line. A Ballard pass advanced SCW1 to the 10, Hearn then scored on a pass and Ballard added two by dashing into the endzone on the conversion. Score: 31-13. Reserve Gold was unable to score again before the clock ran out. Until repairs are made to the football field, the base flag football league is playing its games in the outfield of a softball field. Consequently, the "gridiron" is only 80 yards long instead of 100, and teams are limited to six players instead of eight. In addition, no PAT kicks are possible because there are no goal posts; for that reason, a completed pass on an extra-point attempt counts as one point, while a run that results in a score on a conversion counts as two points. Contests scheduled next Tuesday, 5-9 p.m., are Gold vs. the Medics, White vs. ACNS, Gym Rats vs. SCW1, and Iron Men vs. Reserve Red.