JSerra’s girls flag football team accepts CIF Southern Section D1 championship trophy. Photo: @CIFSS / X.com.
Perfect JSerra wins girls flag football CIFSS D1 title
The old cliché “the third time is a charm” worked very well for the JSerra of San Juan Capistrano flag football team, but not so well for Orange Lutheran of Orange after JSerra defeated Orange Lutheran for the third time this season. This time, however, the match-up between two of the nation’s top three teams for the fall flag season (some states play in the winter) and Trinity League powers was for all the marbles.
After two Trinity League victories, and in a contest that came down to the game’s final play, JSerra (28-0) completed a perfect season with a hard-fought and exciting 25-20 victory in the CIF Southern Section Division I championship title game on Saturday night at El Modena High in Orange.
Girls flag football is predominately a passing game, but ironically the game winning touchdown came on a 6-yard run by freshman quarterback Kate Meierr with a minute left after the Lions had fallen behind 20-19.
With the victory, JSerra made a legitimate claim and bold statement to be ranked No. 1 in the nation, although coming into the contest the Lions were No. 2 in the MaxPreps computer rankings and Orange Lutheran No. 3. However, when the new rankings came out on Monday, as expected the computer spit out a new order and gave JSerra it’s just due, and Orange Lutheran was bumped up to the No. 2 spot.
“We prepared hard for this game because we knew the playoffs mean a lot more,” said junior and No. 2 leading wide receiver and top rusher GG Szczuka at last week’s press conference luncheon. “We would love to finish No. 1 in the nation. That’s been our goal for a while and winning this game should help us a lot.”
Indeed it did.
Just like in the two Trinity wins — by 18-7 at the end of September in Orange and 21-20 in the second week of October at home, this game came down to pass interceptions and a JSerra defense that held Orange Lutheran at the most critical time of the game.
In the 18-7 victory, JSerra intercepted four passes from Orange Lutheran junior quarterback Makeena Cook, one of the nation’s top flag football signal-callers and the USA U17 quarterback, and in the 21-20 win the Lions got one pick. Finally, in the CIFSS D1 title game it was the pass defense that came up big again with two pass interceptions and a late sack to preserve the win.
Through three quarters, the game was back and forth with two lead changes and a tie. Trailing 13-7 at the half, JSerra had the only two TDs in the third quarter, both passes from Meier with the second one coming on a 24-yard completion to junior Kai Beary.
After trailing 20-19 when Cook connected with senior Ruby Fuamatu on a 1-yard TD pass with around five minutes left, JSerra responded.
From there, Meier helped orchestrate a drive that included a fourth-and-11 completion to Beary. Then, after a completion to freshman Tessa Russell on the very next play, there was a completion to freshman Ava Irwin by sophomore quarterback Ava Van Herde, who has rotated with Meier all season. A sack on the next play left JSerra on the OLu 6-yard line, but on a play designed as a run, Meier scored the game-winning touchdown. The problem is that Orange Lutheran still had life but only a minute left.
Cook completed four straight passes that got the ball down to the JSerra 2-yard line. An offside penalty and a sack left Orange Lutheran at the two for the game’s final play. Cook dropped back to pass for what could have been a game-winning TD, but the pass was broken up and fell incomplete, and JSerra and its fans began to celebrate the CIFSS D1 championship.
According to CIF Southern Section Assistant Commissioner Thom Simmons in his opening remarks at the press conference luncheon, 315 teams started the season, and to give you an idea of how big the Southern Section is, that’s around half of the schools in the section and a number that is almost double the size of all the schools in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section, the state’s second largest section. For the playoffs, 176 teams qualified and that number is a little more than the entire Sac-Joaquin Section.
In the end, it came down to 12 teams in six divisions, and each had its own table at the luncheon.
For the second year that the Southern Section has held a press conference luncheon for flag football, the Los Angeles Chargers hosted the event at The Grand in Long Beach. The keynote speaker was Adrianna Cox, the Los Angeles Chargers Impact Fund, Special Advisor, and the granddaughter of former San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos.
“You’re not just part of flag football, you’re shaping the future,” said Cox, who pointed out the flag football will be in the 2028 Olympics. “We celebrate each and every one of you. You are truly amazing.”
“At the Los Angeles Chargers we are committed to showing women there is a future for them in all aspects of sports,” Cox continued. “We’re here to do this for the long run.”
Beside JSerra winning in Division 1, in Division 2 Corona del Mar of Newport Beach was a 26-14 winner over Westlake of Westlake Village. Roosevelt of Eastvale won in Division 3 over La Serna of Whittier, 14-12. In Division 4, it was Poly Riverside defeating Valencia West Ranch, 27-18. Anaheim blitzed Castaic, 32-6, in Division 5, and in Division 6 it was Bishop Alemany (Mission Hills) winning against Adelanto in a baseball-like score of 6-2.
