Coaches often talk about how the more game reps a team gets, the better prepared it is for the end of the season.
Verdugo Hills’ girls flag football team went into last week’s nonleague matchup against Birmingham with a 4-1 record. The Patriots had yet to play their first game and got a heavyweight matchup right away.
The Patriots won the CIF Los Angeles City Section Open Division title last season while the Dons won the Division 1 title.
A new season brings new struggles as both teams struggled to convert on third and fourth downs in a game that ended in a scoreless tie Wednesday afternoon.
“We knew they were a good opponent,” said Patriots head coach Jim Rose. “I’m fine with our performance. We played a pretty good team today. Offense usually is a little behind, but holding Verdugo Hills to zero (points) with how they’ve scored this season is a big deal for us.”
Both quarterbacks struggled to get the ball downfield. The Dons threw four interceptions and the Patriots threw two.
The four interceptions for the Patriots were caught by Malaea Tonga, Alana Alcala, Melani Mora and Bella Gonzalez. The Dons’ two interceptions were caught by Jillian Wilenkin and Meadow Moore.
“We knew Birmingham was going to be good,” said Dons head coach Darren Fitzgerald. “The hardest thing you can do is replicate good defenses in practice. Our defense looked pretty legit today. Birmingham is a good team but they made some mistakes and kept us in the game. We got the Open Division champs playing the Division 1 champs in a 0-0 tie. I think we’re in the right spot.”
The Patriots’ offensive woes from their first game quickly turned around in their second game Wednesday against Hart. With less than 10 minutes to go in the first half, Gonzalez scored the first touchdown of the season for the Patriots on a 12-yard run to make the score 6-0.
Gonzalez scored her second touchdown after an Alcala interception, this time from 8 yards out, to make the score 12-0.
Gonzalez ended the game with a team-high 73 yards rushing and added 10 yards passing.
“We didn’t do too well the first game, but we made progress throughout the two games and worked well for our first day out,” said Gonzalez. “We wanted to start off our season with a win and we played against some really good teams.”
A bright spot for the Hawks came after a Natalia Hernandez interception that led to a touchdown from Gianna Costello. The Hawks were able to convert their extra point and made the score 12-7.
“They’re a great team,” said Hawks head coach Josh Masmela. “I thought we were able to keep up but some mistakes cost us the game. I think we can keep up with a lot of good teams, but hats off to Birmingham. We just have to continue to adjust and keep getting better.”
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