The Texas Elite Spartans emerged from Saturday’s contest victorious and stamped their return to the IX Cup Championship for the 2022 season. The Elite Spartans defeated the Atlanta Phoenix 30-10 in the final round of the Women’s National Football Conference playoffs. The win marks the third consecutive year that the Texas Elite Spartans have made it to the IX Cup Championship game.

The Elite Spartans opened the game with a defensive effort that shut down Atlanta’s offense. The Elite Spartans then went on a long drive, capped off with a slashing touchdown from running back Tiffany Hill for the first points of the game.

Atlanta answered in the second quarter, putting up a field goal after a long drive of their own to close within four points. It was the closest the two teams would be for the remainder of the day.

“We studied them well, and they would be athletic and fast. There were a couple things we knew about them, and a couple things we didn’t know,” said Texas Elite Spartans head coach Odessa Jenkins in an interview with The Dallas Express. “Our offensive and defensive lines knew they would be lining up against athletes, and that’s exactly what we got. They played their hearts out.”

Just before halftime, Texas added another touchdown to extend their lead to 10 points after they missed the extra point attempt.

The second touchdown came with some controversy as it appeared that the Texas offensive line had gotten too far downfield when quarterback Brittany Bushman connected with receiver/running back Rasan Gore. Rather than replay the down, the referees counted the touchdown and penalized the extra point attempt.

Jenkins said that some of the missed opportunities by the Elite Spartans in the first half were the result of the Phoenix defense capitalizing on mistakes and an offensive effort that kept the league’s highest-scoring offense on the sideline.

“I think it was just a situation where [Phoenix] did what they had to do, which was to keep us off the field a little bit, and then we didn’t do ourselves any favors by turning the ball over,” Jenkins said. “I also think there was some adjustment for us, just seeing cover two and the 4-3 front because it’s been a while. A lot of folks have been putting a bigger front in front of us, and we’ve been picking them apart. I think it took us a little bit to adjust to it.”

After both offenses failed to score to open the third, Bushman found Liz Landry in the back of the endzone for a highlight-reel touchdown to extend the Elite Spartans’ lead to 17 points. Atlanta then made a critical mistake on the ensuing kickoff, allowing Texas to recover the ball and setting the league-leading offense up with a short field that led to a field goal.

Liz Landry added another touchdown to her impressive 2022 total late in the fourth quarter. With just over 2:30 remaining, Landry collected a pass from Bushman to effectively put the game out of touch for any chance at a miracle comeback by Atlanta.

The teams would trade turnovers in the final minutes, first when Atlanta fumbled on the kickoff following the Spartans touchdown, then a fumble by the Spartans on an end-around reverse. That fumble would lead to an Atlanta touchdown, but with only 1:12 remaining, it was too little, too late for the Phoenix to make a comeback.

Jenkins went into the game fully confident in her team and never doubted that a win was all but inevitable. She said that after the first Elite Spartans touchdown, she had no doubt that her team would be victorious.

“There is no big secret to who we are; we are a disciplined execution team,” Jenkins said. “We had a game plan to come out heavy and make them pack the box and see how they adjusted to our spread, and once we saw the adjustments, it was a wrap. When they decided to rely heavily on their backers in coverage, we knew it was going to be a long night.”

The Texas Elite Spartans will return to the Dallas area to play in the IX Cup Championship game at The Star in Frisco this season. It is the third year the Elite Spartans have made it to the ultimate game in the WNFC competition.

The Elite Spartans will face the Utah Falconz on June 26. The Falconz defeated the Denver Bandits in San Diego, California, in a tight match late on June 11 after beating the Pacific Conference defending champion San Diego Rebellion on June 9.

Jenkins said playing in front of the Elite Spartans’ home fans and family in the sport’s biggest game is a dream.

“We don’t take for granted that there are 17 teams trying to get to that one spot,” Jenkins said. “We start every season new, and we try to be better than we were yesterday.”

The IX Cup game will be a rematch of the first-ever Championship game held in 2019 that saw Texas defeat Utah 19-14. The game is the finale of a weekend of events featuring the All-Pro game, various activities, and opportunities for fans to meet their favorite players.