It’s win or go home in the CIF Southern Section single-elimination girls flag football playoffs. Newbury Park was not ready to go home and showed it was ready to move on with a win against Yorba Linda.
The Panthers took down the visiting Mustangs, 21-20, on Tuesday in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs.
The Panthers (14-7) advance to the second round Saturday and will travel to face Esperanza.
For now, the Panthers get to enjoy their first playoff win, which comes in the first year of the CIF-SS girls flag football playoffs.
“I feel on top of the world right now,” said Panthers head coach Steven Wood. “What a great, hard-fought match against a great opponent. They were evenly matched to be a one-point game and that’s what the playoffs are all about. Now we’ve got to get ready for Saturday.”
The Panthers’ first drive of the game resulted in an easy score. More impressively, Greta Heath completed five passes to five different receivers on the first drive, which led to the game’s first touchdown.
Heath ended her night with 216 passing yards and three passing touchdowns.
Heath’s top receiver, Lily Johnson, finished with eight catches for 72 yards and two touchdowns.
“It was a nerve-wracking game,” said Heath. “We had energy and we played with intensity and that’s why we got into the end zone. The first half we tend to play nervous and in the second half we get to full speed, but for our next match I want us to get to full speed from the start.”
The Mustangs (10-6-1) did all they could to hang on and went into halftime tied 14-14.
On their first possession coming out of halftime, the Mustangs managed to drive down the field but a strong goal-line stop spearheaded by Brooklyn Batty kept Yorba Linda from scoring.
Yorba Linda did score later in the second half to take a 20-14 lead with nine minutes left to put some pressure on the Panthers.
Newbury Park handled the pressure well.
Another methodical drive led to Heath tossing her third touchdown pass of the night to tie the score at 20-20. Heath then added the conversion pass to take the lead 21-20.
The Panthers needed one more stop to ice the game and that’s exactly what they did.
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With 1:22 left to go in the game, the Panthers got the stop they need to head into the second round.
“I see the quarterback turning her shoulders at me but I had everything under control,” said Batty of her fourth-down end zone stop. “I just needed to swat the ball down and that’s what I did. We’ve got to continue staying disciplined moving forward if we want to keep these results.”
MORE FIRST-ROUND SCORES
Woodbridge 33, Royal 0
Downey 19, Westlake 6
Highland 38, El Segundo 32
Fullerton 24, West Ranch 21