The Mankad forum arrived at Wheeler Park on Oct. 7, and began to warm up, or at least most of them, for a game of capture the flag against the Morgan forum.

“I’m very excited, very pumped,” said Charlie Solomon, a sophomore in the Mankad forum. “In capture the flag it’s not about winning even though that’s important it’s all about beating someone that’s more important than winning,’” 

The Morgan forum arrived shortly after. They piled their bags on the benches and tables by the basketball court.

Both forums faced each other to set the rules, which Robert enforced while stroking his beard. A dividing line was set, and both teams split off to their respective sides of the field.

The Morgan forum headed to the play structure on their end to find a good spot for their flag. The Mankad forum found a hole in the branch of a tree and jammed their flag inside.

The Morgan forum started chanting “fe-fi-fo-fum.” Andie Tappenden, a senior in the Mankad forum, began giving a motivational speech to her forumettes. The Mankad forum tried to start a chant, but it died down fairly quickly.

Nic Grofsorean and some other upperclassmen helped to separate the defense from the offense for the Mankad forum.

The game begins

Shortly after the chants, the teams got prepared to start. Robert began a countdown and started the game.

Three of the Morgan forumettes quickly got tagged and went to jail. Eventually the Mankad forum had most of the Morgan forum in jail. Jonah Gutenberg, Josh Martins-Caulfield, Grofsorean and Solomon slowly but surely circled the area around the flag near the play structure. Martins-Caulfield made several forays into enemy territory but with no luck.

Aris Chalin was soon the lone ranger of the Morgan forum side, and he was trying hard to get to the flag. But the attempt was an uphill battle with most of his forumettes in jail.

Gutenberg managed to sneak into the play structure and snatch the flag. As he was ambushed by the enemy, Martins-Caulfield and Grofsorean came in from behind and ran away with the flag. Solomon made a last-ditch effort and managed to swing the Mankad forum to victory.

Round 2

One of the Morgan forum players, Cal McCullough, snuck into Mankad forum territory from behind the trees. Gutenberg, Martins-Caulfield, Solomon and Wade were all in jail.

The Morgan forum’s game-plan became more of a constant ambush with practically the entire forum coming from all sides.

The majority of the Mankad forum was either in jail or attacking, making it practically impossible for the defense to protect the flag, but they managed.

Morgan snuck behind the fence on the Mankad forum’s side. He stole the flag and tried to run. He bolted toward the pavilion but got tagged. Marcus then picked up the flag and returned it to his side making it a tie after two rounds.

“ I thought the very early part of the game, there was some like tree climbing going on at the far side of the field,” Morgan said. “I think the glory of capture the flag is that it’s a pretty primal game. The objective is simple, but it really has a great way of drawing everyone in.”

“No, I think Robert was good,” Mankad said. “Yeah, I think he just snuck up on us. I was keeping my eyes on him. Even though I wasn’t playing. I was kind of like, ‘Okay, there’s Robert, there’s Robert. And then, oh no, no Robert, oh no.’ He was kind of keeping an eye on the flag all the time.”

“And I think I actually spoke with one of your forum members who had never played Capture the Flag before or something like that,” Morgan said to Mankad post-game. “Maybe they just said they hadn’t played Scrabble. I think they said they hadn’t played either of those.”