By JUSTIN KANE
After reaching the district championship by going 6-0 in district play and 9-1 in the regular season, the girls flag football team fell short of their third straight championship.
“We just missed flags,” sophomore Anisha Holloway said. “Some of us got cocky; a total team effort wasn’t there.”
On April 27, the team fell 18-20 to the Lake Nona Lions despite beating them 14-6 at home in the regular season.
“We let them get points when they shouldn’t have,” head coach Ken Hensley said. “We missed a lot of flags, and didn’t make two-point conversions. We just didn’t play our game.”
Even though she threw for two touchdowns, sophomore quarterback Bailey Florin and the rest of the offense will have to wait until next season to try to win their first state championship.
Florin accumulated 37 total touchdowns this season and the offense scored 244 points.
The team averaged just over 18 points per game and scored 20 or more five times throughout the season.
“[Bailey] ran for touchdowns and threw for touchdowns; she lead us in all the hard situations,” Hensley said.
On the other side of the ball, the defense, which had seven girls who had 10 or more tackles, allowed just over seven points per game. They only allowed three teams to score more than seven points and gave up 94 total points through the 13 game season.
On April 6 the defense stepped up in the game against University.
“They pushed us all the way, right down to the wire,” Hensley said. “But our defense rose up to the occasion.”
The game went into double overtime and the team was up 13-12 with the Cougars getting the ball. As they were driving, the defense held them on fourth down to stop the Cougars and leave with the victory.
That win improved the team to 6-0 in the district and a perfect 6-0 start.
“[The University game] was so scary,” Holloway said. “We put a lot of pressure on their defense, and we made them lose the game.”
The only loss of the season came April 15 at home against the Edgewater Eagles.
They fell 0-6 and were without three of their leading offensive weapons, Florin, junior Kyndal Skersick and junior Jaci Chastain due to a basketball tournament in Chicago.
“[The Edgewater game] was a learning experience,” senior Katelyn Rumplik said. “We weren’t used to not having the players we depended on. The younger players had to step up, but they couldn’t fill their shoes.”
That was also the only game in 27 regular season games that the team did not score.
With only four seniors on the 17 girl roster, the 13 underclassmen had to step up and lead the team.
“The [seniors] had a lot of experience, but the reason [the underclassmen] made varsity was because they had skills we haven’t seen before,” sophomore Tykenia Chanthavong said.
Despite only losing three games over the last two years the team has found a way to win.
“We play as a team and not as individuals,” Rumplik said. “We play off each other’s strengths.”