Christian Brothers takes page out of Del Campo playbook to win flag football championship

Something had to give Thursday night at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks.

For Del Campo and Christian Brothers, teams that combined for more than 400 points during Capital Athletic League play leading up to Thursday’s league championship game, there were still zeroes on the scoreboard with under four minutes to play.

With Christian Brothers facing a do-or-die fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line, head coach RJ Bradley took a page out of the opponent’s playbook.

“We actually ran a Del Campo play,” Bradley confessed after the game.

What began as a defensive scouting report early in the practice week ended up as the game-clinching scoring play for the Falcons’ offense in a 6-0, league championship-clinching win.

“That was a play we’ve been practicing, trying to show the girls what it looks like (from a defensive standpoint),” Bradley said. “We put a rugby player at quarterback and just ran the play right back at them.”

After snapping the ball from the center position for the majority of the contest, senior Dana Greer stepped in at quarterback out of a Christian Brothers timeout. She took the snap, rolled left and pitched it to twin sister Devin Greer, who stretched the ball across the goal line milliseconds before her flag was pulled. That gave the Falcons the first and only score of the game with three minutes to play.

“My sister plays rugby, so she was like, ‘Let’s do a toss play rugby style,’” Devin Greer said. “And we executed it perfectly.”

On Del Campo’s ensuing drive, QB Sophia Wright connected with Zoey Kothe on a 27-yard pass to get the Cougars into Christian Brothers territory. But on fourth down from the 27-yard line, Falcon junior Aleyah Harmon iced the game with her second interception of the night, one of four Christian Brothers picks, with under a minute to go.

“We changed our defense a little bit, specifically for them,” said Harmon, a Sacramento Bee All-Metro honorable mention basketball player. “We just really went for the quarterback and made sure she couldn’t get it off in time. Just really packed the middle and made sure they couldn’t get it.”

Both teams played swarming defense throughout the game, each nabbing two interceptions in the first half. Sydnie Watkins and Rosemary Emseih had takeaways for the Falcons while Jana Osuna and Emily Akhterov had key turnovers for the Cougars.

Christian Brothers threatened to score late in the first half as freshman quarterback Gabby Devlin had big pass plays to Harmon and Devin Greer to get to the Del Campo 13-yard line. But on fourth-and-goal, Cougars junior Savannah Jurgens broke up a pass at the goal line to keep the game scoreless at halftime.

“This is the first (game) where we actually had a little bit of a fight, and they pulled it together,” Bradley said.

Both of Harmon’s interceptions came in the second half, the biggest one coming in the final minute.

“We came out here, we fought even when we were tired, we didn’t give up,” Harmon said. “We just kept playing and persevered.”

A large and lively crowd filled the stands to witness Christian Brothers (13-3, 6-0 CAL) become not only the inaugural CAL girls flag football champion, but also the first team to hand Del Campo a loss in 2023. The Cougars came in at 15-0, outscoring opponents 187-13 during league play.

“If you would have told me we’d hold them to six points and lose, I would have been shocked,” Del Campo head coach Jay Lottes said. “But we respect that program. They’re a great team, and I hope we find a way to play them again.”

Del Campo (15-1, 5-1) won its first 15 games with nine defensive shutouts, 41 interceptions and an average margin of victory of 30-3. Both teams will likely get high seeds in the upcoming Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs as brackets are scheduled to be unveiled Friday.

“That was the goal all season long, to get into the dance,” Lottes said. “We’ve been focused on making a run all year long. We didn’t start from day one not having the postseason in mind.”

Around the section

▪ As the final week of the regular season comes to a close, nine league champions were crowned in the inaugural girls flag football season in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Here’s a look at some of the league champions and automatic qualifiers.

The top-ranked team in the entire section, Woodcreek, finished with an unblemished 20-0 regular-season mark with a 12-0 Capital Valley Conference record The Timberwolves should receive a No. 1 seed in the Division I bracket. West Park and Antelope will also represent the CVC.

▪ Del Oro is not far behind Woodcreek in the rankings and will likely be one of the top seeds after a 16-2 season with a perfect 12-0 run through the Sierra Foothill League. Rocklin and Granite Bay have also secured playoff berths from the SFL.

▪ Dixon outlasted Pioneer by one game to win the Golden Empire League. Both teams will battle for the D-II crown while Sacramento Adventist and Casa Roble could also claim playoff berths.

▪ Head coach Tony Martello just keeps adding to his resume as his Colfax Falcons ran through the Pioneer Valley League unbeaten at 8-0. Since starting 1-2 with losses to Rocklin and Woodcreek, Colfax has won 11 in a row, outscoring opponents 301-26 in that span.

▪ In the southern part of the section, Tracy edged out St. Mary’s, Tokay and Lodi for the Tri-City Athletic League crown. Stagg of Stockton clinched the San Joaquin Athletic Association while Ceres and Escalon were the top two teams from the Western Athletic Conference.

Tri-champions were crowned in the Central California Conference on the final day of the season as Livingston beat Atwater in six overtimes to pull into a three-way tie with Atwater and Merced, which lost to El Capitan Thursday.

▪ Two brackets of 16 teams will be released Friday. Postseason play begins Tuesday with championship games set for Nov. 4 at Cosumnes River College.