In an exhilarating weekend of girls flag football, the team learned valuable lessons as every game provides a learning curve. On Friday the 25th, the team won 32-25 and 41-6, however, on Saturday took 12-16 and 21-34 losses, which ultimately took the girls out of the tournament. 

Senior Raychel Watts, a defensive line and wide receiver, notes the differences from each day’s games. 

“Friday our offense did well, [but our] defense wasn’t on [our] A game. [the opposing team]  would score a touchdown and everyone would let it happen and then the offense would have to score back, and it was [a lot of] back and forth. [on] the Saturday game our defense got a lot better, but our offense wasn’t on top,” Watts said. 

Overall, the games featured significant challenges from facing various teams and their strategies. 

“The teams were a lot more aggressive and the referees weren’t calling pass interferences. It was different and more difficult to play more aggressively than usual,” Watts said. 

Watts recalls a significant play that impacted the game’s outcome and her team’s need for evolving their tactics. 

“One of the teams had a cluster play that [our] defense couldn’t figure out. So we saw new strategies that we have to work on now. For us, I noticed we need to work on getting to the first down with shorter passes, and then going for touchdowns,” Watts said. 

New surprises sprung up during the games with cluster plays and it illustrated  communication within the team. 

“The other team would cluster up and then our defense played man on man, which doesn’t work for that play. You should be playing zone, so we were all taken aback by that. But, eventually in the end, we figured it out and were in the zone,” Watts said. 

Strategies aren’t the only thing that the team needs to work on, but also keeping their morale up after a loss. 

“Our first game on Saturday didn’t go well and we carried that into the game after, which was not a good thing. So we need to work on bringing each other up and shaking it off,” Watts said. 

Despite this being her first year on the team, Senior Helma Cruz, a defensive player, recognizes that team morale is vital to their performance. 

“Some of the most memorable parts of the tournament was being able to see my teammates go from being in a slump to everybody cheering them on. There’s such positive encouragement. And when Hannah and Shelby got a pick six [when the defense intercepts the ball and brings it back for a defensive touchdown], we all got really excited,” Cruz said. 

Amidst the game, new tactics had to develop and be rearranged, which proved to be helpful in defending. 

“There would be players who were super fast and since there’s a safety at the top and not everybody was covered,[because of this], there would be one person at the end who was open. We stopped playing man on man, and most of the people stayed or either the safety would go out to where the leak was or one of the linebackers would go out. From there the safety would cover the one man in the middle,” Cruz said.  

The team still exemplified a strong bond throughout the games and some of the newer members got to show their skills. 

“We went through our highs and lows together. Regardless of what was happening, we would cheer each other on. All the running backs and offense were really working hard. Having everyone together and [seeing] the teamwork on the field brought us closer and our younger teammates got to step up and show out, a lot of them [younger players] got their first touchdowns and I’m really proud of them for that,” Cruz said. 

While they lost Saturday’s games, the team still remains strong and hopes to work on their mistakes. 

“Even though we were bummed out, a lot of us take it as fuel. We take the criticism and learn from our mistakes and we’re going to apply it to our upcoming games,” Cruz said.