Westlake flag football unable to keep up with Corona del Mar in D2 final

ORANGE — As the final buzzer sounded, a celebration commenced. Players were celebrating on the field and fans were cheering from the stands.

Amid all of the commotion, Westlake head coach Mike Eames and quarterback Annabel O’Keefe shared a hug, the pair clearly showing emotion. Except they weren’t emotions signaling a victory but rather defeat.

O’Keefe had finished the game with over 200 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception. She left it all out on the field, but it wasn’t enough, as Westlake fell to Corona del Mar, 26-14, in the CIF-SS Division 2 championship game.

The coach and quarterback had an incredible season, leading the Warriors to an appearance in a CIF-SS championship game. And postgame, the special bond they shared was clear.

“She’s got that football IQ that not every kid has, and she’s a freshman,” Eames said. “And what I told her is, keep your head up. I get that we’re disappointed right now, but she’s a freshman. You’re gonna have a lot of chances. No one expected us to be here. And that girl made as many plays as anybody.”

“Effort-wise, we were there,” Eames added. “We made some mistakes, missing a lot of flags, and we dropped the balls that we normally catch. These are things we were doing every day, but it’s football; things like that happen. And credit to Corona del Mar, excellent team, excellent coach.”

Sea Kings quarterback Addison Stern was a problem all night for the Warriors’ defense. She finished with over 270 total yards, four total touchdowns and one interception.

Her highlight play of the night was beating the Westlake rush, rolling to her left and launching the ball deep to receiver Shannon Parrot for a 52-yard gain. Parrot was caught right before the goal line, but Stern finished the drive with a two-yard rushing touchdown.

“She’s a great athlete,” Eames said of Stern. “She made our girls miss flags … I think we lost containment, things that we lost some discipline that we normally wouldn’t have. But credit to them, they saw where some weaknesses were and they exploited them.”

The Westlake pass rush couldn’t do much to contain Stern throughout the night. O’Keefe, on the other hand, was under constant pressure all night long. The drives where she didn’t face pressure, the Warriors scored.

Both scoring drives by Westlake resulted from plays O’Keefe made with her arm. She had a 32-yard touchdown pass to wideout Olivia Elsokary and a 22-yard touchdown pass to wideout Kate Janowicz.

Despite the pressure, O’Keefe found room to work with and got the ball out. She was sacked once, but a bigger issue for Westlake’s offense was the dropped passes.

“Things were starting to turn, and they turned up a notch on their rush,” Eames said. “We normally can block that. Our quarterback had no time, so when they needed it most, they were able to ratchet up some very aggressive pressure … I was happy with the way the offense (played). We dropped some balls. This goes back to just not executing on our end.”

The season is over for Westlake, but the outlook is full of optimism. The team has only two seniors on its roster.

“They’re just good kids,” Eames said. “They play hard. They’re warriors. They truly exemplify warriors. I couldn’t be prouder.

“Remember how they got here? They had to fight through a 5-OT game and then a 2-OT game to get here. So they were battle-tested. It just didn’t show up when we needed it most. But it doesn’t take away anything that I feel about them.”