How the flag football season ended in heartbreaking losses for St. Vincent's and Calvary Day
The two local flag football teams left in the state playoffs saw their seasons come to end in heartbreaking fashion Thursday with close quarterfinal losses.
St. Vincent's hosted Harris County and the Saints were leading until the Tigers scored with 10 seconds left, and converted a controversial extra point to win 7-6.
Calvary Day went on the road to face Pace Academy and gave up one big play to the Knights, who made it stand up in a 6-0 victory.
SVA, the No. 1 seed out of Area 2, opened the playoffs by winning a double header on Tuesday as the Saints shut out Beach 30-0, before dominating Dodge County 24-0.
Hayden Aliotta led the way in both wins. The senior quarterback had suffered a stress fracture in her foot in a win over Calvary Day and missed three games before returning for the playoffs. She had four touchdown passes against Beach -- hitting Alana Beddow, Abbegail Nowell, Caroline Ryan and Kyrin Fox for scores.
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She was on top of her game again in the win over Dodge County with touchdown passes to Porter Reminger and Beddow. Rose Williams had a touchdown run and Belle Jackson had a pick six for the Saints.
On Thursday, Aliotta had a precision touchdown pass of about 20 yards to Reminger as SVA (14-2) took a 6-0 lead in the first half.
But the game ended in controversy. Harris County quarterback Madalynn Cauley hit Ashton Whearly with a touchdown pass to tie things up at 6-6 with 10 seconds left. Whearly drew a flag for excessive celebration which put the Tigers way back on their initial extra point attempt. But SVA was called for a pass interference on the first extra point try on a ball thrown away from the flag near the sideline, giving Harris County new life. The Tigers (12-1) took advantage as Cauley connected with Reese Wise for the deciding point.
Tensions were running high in the handshake line after the game as a short fracas broke out between emotional players.
"I thought the game was gifted to them on that pass interference call," SVA coach Mike St. Louis said. "Our defensive back cut inside on the play and the back judge deemed it pass interference. It was a sloppy game, and we felt they had a lot of illegal blocks that were ignored. But we should have made the stop at the end.
"This is a tough loss, but I'm really proud of how the girls played all season -- they gave their best in every game and had an excellent year."
Pace Academy 6, Calvary Day 0
Calvary Day made the trip to Atlanta and gave the Knights a fight, but coach Nick Grassi said one "busted" play cost the Cavs.
"We almost had their quarterback sacked but she came out of it and threw one deep for a touchdown," Grassi said. "We had a lot of dropped passes tonight and a lot of missed opportunities that cost us."
Grassi said Natalie Sanders was a defensive standout for the Cavs with three or four sacks on the night.
Calvary advanced to the quarterfinals with a 12-0 win over Savannah Country Day followed by a 26-12 victory over Wheeler County at home on Tuesday.
Sophomore Scarlett Jackson ran for 160 yards and two touchdowns in the win over SCD and added three more touchdowns in the win over Wheeler County -- rushing for 57 yards and two scores and catching a touchdown pass from junior McKenzie Clayton, who was 10 of 16 passing for 118 yards and two scores -- the other to Talia Johnson.
"We had some self inflicted wounds that hurt us tonight, and we have a lot of room for improvement," Grassi said in a phone interview after the game. "But we're losing just one senior -- Claire Thomas, one of our cornerbacks. So we have a lot of talent coming back and are looking forward to next year."
Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Flag football: St. Vincent's and Calvary Day end seasons with losses
