On May 6, girls flag football teams from Berkshire, Hawken and NDCL competed in the Northeast Ohio High School Flag Football Championships at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
On May 6, girls flag football teams from Berkshire, Hawken and NDCL competed in the Northeast Ohio High School Flag Football Championships at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Geauga County teams delivered successful performances, as the Hawks made it to the quarterfinals and the Badgers were runners-up for the championship.
The Hawks played the Lions in a first-round matchup, while the Badgers took on Cleveland Central Catholic.
Hawken started the contest with an interception on the first play of the game. Lexi Blood intercepted the Lions pass and took the ball into the end zone for a pick-six to give the Hawks a 6-0 lead.
On the very next play of the game, Blood again came up with an interception.
This second interception led to the Hawks taking a 12-0 lead when quarterback Helena Yanchar threw her first touchdown pass of the game, then made an interception before the end of the first half.
Moving back to quarterback, Yanchar completed a touchdown pass to Blood for another touchdown.
On the two-point conversion, Yanchar again found Blood open in the end zone to make the score 20-0 heading into halftime.
In the second half, Yanchar completed her third touchdown pass of the game, to Augusta Halle. The Hawks then added the two-point conversion on a pass from Yanchar to Hayley Garber, who will play NCAA Division I Tennis at Longwood University in the fall.
With the Hawks up 28-0, the Lions scored a touchdown late in the second half when NDCL quarterback Sophia Jurcevic completed a touchdown pass to Marissa Brock.
With the first-round victory, Hawken advanced to the second round to play the Euclid Panthers. This was a defensive battle in which both teams scored a touchdown in regulation to make the score 6-6.
By rule, overtime for the tournament was one play.
For the overtime play, Hawken’s defense was able to stop the Panthers offense from completing the TD pass, and with the defensive stop in overtime, the Hawks advanced to the quarterfinals to face the Kirtland Hornets.
Though the Hawks played hard, Kirtland was able to defeat them, 14-7.
For Berkshire’s part, the Badgers won four straight games to reach the championship game against Kirtland.
In the first round game, they were led by quarterback Madalyn Metzel, who threw four touchdown passes in a 32-0 victory over the Cleveland Central Catholic Ironmen.
Post-game, Metzel and Alyssa Lawson talked about the Badgers success.
Metzel said the offense and defense both played very well.
Lawson believed the game against the Ironmen demonstrated the vast improvements the Badgers have made throughout the season, and felt that playing well in the first round was helpful for building confidence.
“I think we’re finally starting to put together everything we worked on in practice and it’s really starting to show, especially on the scoreboard,” Lawson said. “So it’s just good to see that we can come here and compete.”
Certainly, the Badgers demonstrated great confidence, as they also beat Perry, Mentor and Willoughby South after their first-round tournament victory.
Berkshire then played very well in the title game. However, the Hornets scored a second-half touchdown to ultimately claim the championship for Kirtland, 6-0.
