On Oct. 24, the girls’ flag football had their last game of the season against Riverbank. The Reds started on a roll, scoring back to back touchdowns, but it was Riverbank that came away with the victory, 38-24.
Starting the game strong the Lady Reds were able to compete hard scoring the first touchdown by #3 Ashley Mendonza for 10 yards. She kept it up on both sides of the field stopping Riverbank from scoring whenever they had the chance to have the ball.
The Reds would score again when #15 Bethany Guinn launched a 20-yard throw to #21 Jacquline Chavez for another Reds touchdown making the score 12-0.
A big addition to the game was #14 Isabella Haro who was able to contribute over 50 yards throughout the game helping us get to the endzone more often.
To end the half we would have one more touchdown from #16 Nayeli Nieto for 10 yards sending the Reds into halftime leading18-6.
Going into the second half we were able to compete even harder. Even though Riverbank started scoring, it was still a close game and we were able to hold them until the very end. Chavez would add another touchdown for 20 yards making that her second of the night putting the Reds down 26-24 with only a little time left in the game.
I called a timeout to get the team’s head back in the game since we only had a couple of minutes left, and we wanted to score and we had a chance. Guinn scored a touchdown for us putting us up 30-26, but the refs called it back so that call kind of hurt us since it would be Riverbank’s ball to end the game. Riverbank would then score and won 32-24.
Guinn and Chavez had a huge defensive game each having 10 flag pulls. Mendoza added 5 before suffering a game ending injury. #7 Jimena Chavez, #5 Clarissa Toledo, #30 Cecilia Chavez and #16 Nayeli Nieto each added 4 flag pulls to help stop Riverbank from scoring.
As the coach, I am so proud of my team for coming out all season and competing every game. Especially this last game we had some hiccups but they never gave up on each other and always wanted to keep playing for the seniors especially since it was their last game. This season has been memorable because the team got to see what flag football is played like and they all improved tremendously, so next season we will be able to come out stronger and have a bigger chance in the league since it will be our second year and the chance of having 9 returning players. I can't wait to see how this Girl's Flag Football program continues to grow, and I'm so blessed to be able to be a part of Gustine High School's history of being the first-ever girls flag football team and being able to be the first coach for such a great group of girls.
