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The D.C. Divas dropped from the top seed in the Independent Women's Football League playoffs to the second seed in the span of 24 hours.
Instead of hosting the Eastern Conference Championship on July 11, the Divas will travel to Boston to face the new top seed, the Boston Milita.
The Divas (9-0) headed into the playoffs as the top-rated team in the IWFL, according to the league's power rankings, which are used to determine home-field advantage in the playoffs. But while D.C. beat Pittsburgh by 10, Boston (9-0) won the other Eastern Conference playoff game, 34-14, over the Dallas Diamonds.
Because the league power rankings take margin of victory into account, Boston usurped the Divas as the top team in the league when the latest rankings were announced on Sunday. As a result, the Divas will have to travel to Boston for the Eastern Conference title game on July 11.
"I found out Sunday night and I had a long conversation with league president Laurie Frederick on Monday," said Divas' owner Paul Hamlin. "We didn't realize that they would reseed once the playoffs started. We're still determined to travel to Austin for the national championship game on July 25, so in order to do that, we'll have to go to Boston and beat them on their home field."
Against Pittsburgh on Saturday, Tiffany Matthews ran for two touchdowns. Quarterback Allyson Hamlin tossed a 14-yard touchdown pass to Tara Stephenson. Katherine Hemlock had an interception return to the Pittsburgh 1-yard line. From there, Rachelle Pecovsky-Bentley scored on her first carry of the game.
An officiating error may have affected the home site for the Eastern Conference title game.
With the Divas facing a third-and-four from their own 9-yard-line and Pittsburgh out of time outs, Divas' quarterback Allyson Hamlin walked to the line slowly as the clock ticked down to 2 minutes. The officials are supposed to stop the game at the 2-minute mark for a timeout, but failed to do so. Instead Hamlin fumbled the snap and Pittsburgh recovered with 1:55 remaining.
After Pittsburgh quarterback Lisa Horton threw three straight incomplete passes, the Passion scored when Amanda Haeg went off left tackle and found the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown run. Lauren Brocco added the extra point to narrow the gap to 27-17.
Divas' tight end Donna Wilkinson then recovered an onside kick to seal the victory. But the Hamlin fumble allowed the Passion to benefit from a short field and score what appeared to be a meaningless touchdown until the new power rankings were announced on Sunday.
E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.
