A sea of pink jerseys flooded Georgiana’s football field Thursday evening as 18 girls squared off in the school’s inaugural powderpuff football fundraiser.

Some of Georgiana’s most talented female student-athletes proved that the domain of football doesn’t belong solely to men.

Heyana Hawkins, Georgiana’s head junior varsity cheerleading coach, said that the fundraiser—in addition to its primary goal of earning funds for the JV cheerleading squad—was also an opportunity for the school’s girls to flex a different set of muscles.

“It covers their gear, mostly, like their practice clothes and shoes,” Hawkins said. “Cheerleading is a very, very expensive sport, so we just use fundraisers to help the parents pay for what we call spirit packs, which contain everything that involves cheerleading.

“And what we tried to do was give the girls an opportunity to show off their athletic abilities outside the normal means, especially at Georgiana, where the girls are only given a few options. They’re either cheerleaders, basketball players or softball players, so it kind of gave them a chance to do more at Georgiana. The boys always joke around with the girls about how hard football is, so I guess the girls really looked forward to having a powderpuff game.”

A few of Georgiana’s more familiar faces on the gridiron helped out as well, with senior football players Demarcus Rich and Willie Mobley serving as head coaches of the Panthers and Bud’s Bunnies (originally named for Jacquez “Bud” Payton, who was unable to attend the event).

The Panthers and Bunnies were neck-and-neck until a breakaway pick-six put the Panthers ahead permanently by a touchdown.

The Panthers’ stingy defense—coached by all-state defensive player Demarcus Rich—kept the Bunnies at bay until the final seconds dwindled off the clock.

With the first event being deemed a success, Hawkins said that she’s already looking forward to next year’s event.

“Now, we’ve had a lot of girls come and ask ‘Are you going to do it next year?’” Hawkins said. “Yeah, we’re definitely going to do it.  We’re actually going to aim more towards a Thursday night near homecoming season because it’ll be around football season and the field will look nice.”