Legend quarterback Madi Smolen looked left. Nothing doing. She looked right. Nada. She scrambled and finally threw an alley-oop into the end zone, where Lucy Thompson leaped and snared the ball for a 15-yard, first-quarter touchdown.
A desperation Hail Mary? Hardly.
“It’s 100% trust,” Smolen said. “If I have nowhere else to throw, I know I can put the ball up and Lucy will go catch it.”
That trust between the two seniors/best buddies propelled the Titans (17-1) past Chaparral, 26-14, in Wednesday night’s Class 5A flag football semifinals at Trailblazer Stadium. The victory earned Legend a spot in Saturday night’s championship game at Trailblazer Stadium against Mountain Vista (19-0), the defending champions who are riding a 38-game winning streak.
Flag football — this is its second season as a sanctioned CHSAA sport — features teams of just seven players. It’s a wide-open, sometimes wild game in which the chemistry between the QB and her primary receiver is essential. Smolen and Thompson have it.
“To do what those two are doing? Amazing,” Legend head coach Darren Pitzner said. “I’ve coached for 24 years, and I’ve never seen a first-time player come in and do what Lucy is doing and have the chemistry she has with Madi. Lucy is like an NFL wide receiver — next level. I’m lucky to have a front-row seat for it.”
Thompson, who is headed to the University of Nebraska on a softball scholarship as a middle infielder, could be facing an epic weekend. Should the sixth-seeded Titans advance to the finals of the 5A state softball tournament, Thompson would play the championship game at 1:15 p.m. and then saddle up for the flag football title game at 6:45 p.m.
“I’ll have time to do both,” she said with a laugh. “It would be crazy, but I hope it happens.”
Though softball is her first love, football is a close second. Her father, Casey Thompson, had her toddling pass routes in the backyard when she was 4 years old. Then Thompson met Smolen in the second grade, and they’ve tossed the football around ever since.
“We have been best friends for 11 years, so that chemistry doesn’t just come with a snap of the fingers,” Thompson said. “It goes back to second-grade recess. That’s what I think about when I’m on the field. I’m just a little kid playing football again.”
Smolen has completed 359 of 537 passes (66.9%) for 4,330 yards, 67 TDs and 17 interceptions. Thompson has 115 receptions for 1,896 yards and 30 touchdowns.
Smolen’s accuracy, decision-making, and ability to read defense have grown considerably since last season.
“Last year, she was Brett Favre, a wild gunslinger with a canon and no training,” Pitzner said. “But she has been so coachable. She’s been working so hard on her reads and how to use her eyes. She’s doing a great job using her eyes to look people open, which requires an incredibly high football IQ from her.”
Smolen worked overtime during the summer, preparing for her chance at a state title.
“That’s why I was so locked in,” she said. “It’s my senior year, and I want it bad.”
Standing in Smolen’s way is Mountain Vista, which features its own dynamic senior duo in quarterback Ariana Akey and center/receiver Braelynn Looney. The Golden Eagles routed Legend, 40-13, earlier this season.
Akey has thrown 84 TD passes, and Looney has caught 32 of them. As a junior, Akey was named CHSAA’s player of the year and one of 32 players nationwide nominated for the Maxwell National Flag Football Player of the Year Award.
Before the season began, Vista wasn’t shy about its belief it could repeat.
“It was so cool (last year) because it set the precedent by winning the first state championship, so now it’s like, ‘How many more can we get?’ ” Looney said. “If we put in the work, I think it’s definitely a possibility. We have an excellent coaching staff, and we have talented young girls coming up.”
And, like Legend, the Golden Eagles have QB-receiver chemistry that will likely be a deciding factor in Saturday’s title game.
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