ORANGE CITY — For the first time in school history, Forest flag football is a district champion.
After three consecutive appearances in the District 2-4A semifinals, the second-seeded Wildcats beat No. 3 Spruce Creek 14-13 in overtime and then handled No. 1 Flagler Palm Coast 26-7 in the finals to make history on April 22 at University High School.
“That was our goal. I told the girls, ‘We just want to make it, baby steps. Let’s make it to that district final, and then we’ll see what happens,’” Forest coach Mike Elliott said. “I kind of told them after Spruce Creek, ‘Look girls, we just made history. Now let’s go have fun. Play loose,’ and then things just kind of went our way.”
The Wildcats (14-3) earned the opportunity to play the top-seeded Bulldogs (12-5) with the victory over the Hawks just minutes prior to the start of the district final.
But perhaps the back-to-back nature of Forest’s district contests kept it warm compared to a Flagler Palm Coast team that beat No. 4 University 41-13 and then watched Forest and Spruce Creek play. The Wildcats scored the first 20 points of the district final.
“I don’t know how that affected this game, but I know they jumped on us early, and we didn’t respond well in the first half,” Bulldogs coach John King said.
Sophomore Emma Johnson scored Forest’s first two touchdowns in the first quarter against Flagler Palm Coast.
The first was a three-yard receiving touchdown delivered by Kaitlyn Myers. She didn’t wait long for the second, a rushing touchdown on a Statue of Liberty-esque playcall, after Ryann Quinn intercepted Nereyda Campos on FPC’s first offensive drive.
“It’s all (coach) Elliott,” Johnson said. “He came up with that play a couple weeks ago, and we started working on it, and immediately, we all loved the play so much.”
Then, it was Janiana Wess’ time to shine for the Wildcats. The senior wide receiver and defensive back scored on a deep ball thrown by quarterback Haley Giarusso, and they converted the extra point to lead 20-0.
On Flagler Palm Coast’s next drive, Wess intercepted a Campos toss to the end zone to lock up a 20-0 halftime lead.
“I would say in the second quarter, maybe, we all realized we got this in the bag if we keep going with what we’re doing,” Johnson said. “And then once we got to the third, fourth quarter, it was pretty much finalized.”
The Bulldogs made it a two-possession game with 7:51 left in the third quarter with a passing touchdown from Campos and the subsequent extra point. Flagler Palm Coast shifted the momentum further into its favor with a fourth-down stop on the Wildcats, but Forest forced the Bulldogs to turn it over on downs on their next possession.
Quinn scored the Wildcats’ fourth touchdown of the night after Myers pitched the ball to Giarusso, who then found Quinn standing alone in the end zone.
Despite the loss, Flagler Palm Coast is ranked third in Region 1-4A and will still have the opportunity to play for a state championship. Forest’s inaugural district title allows it to host a regional playoff game as long as its first-round opponent isn’t a higher-seeded district champion.
If this week’s rankings hold, the Bulldogs and Wildcats would play at Forest as the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds, respectively.
“I’m confident going forward that we will play in the playoffs, and there’s a good chance that we’re going to play them again next week,” King said.
The regional playoffs begin on April 29.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Forest beats FPC for school’s 1st-ever flag football district title
Reporting by Zach Allen, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
