Pigskin Fun on Turkey Day

For some, football is as much of a Thanksgiving weekend tradition as turkey and time with family.

Thursday morning, eight flag football teams took the field in , a grassroots effort led by a Watsonville football fan, Vic Diaz.

Diaz said this year's round-robin tournament had the best turnout since he started the Turkey Bowl in 2009. Nine teams showed up at , but one was short on players. In the spirit of fun and community involvement, the ninth team was absorbed into the remaining eight squads and the games started.

—a group of Watsonville High grads—played Krogans, a Santa Cruz team, for the championship.

"This team was really really good but they just ran out of time," Diaz said of Krogans team.

The flag football games are 25 minutes each. The eight teams played a total of 15 games on Thanksgiving morning, including three that went to sudden death, Diaz said.

Carmona's won six games straight to take the tournament title for the third straight year. The Wildcatz alumni are 15-1 over three years in the Turkeybowl, Diaz said.

The winning team earned a berth the Flag Football National Championships in Las Vegas, but the Wildcatz declined the invitation, Diaz said.