Regals come from behind to win flag football crown

Come-from-behind victories were the order of the day as the 2014 SDSSAA flag football season wrapped up earlier this month.

Trailing 7-2 at the half, the Marymount Regals took advantage of an unfortunate CND miscue to open the second half and never looked back, grounding the Alouettes 28-7 and capturing their fourth straight Division I crown.

Marymount opened the scoring after defensive stalwart Hope Joly was credited with a safety touch when the Notre-Dame kicker took a knee in her own end zone. The Alouettes came alive in quarter two, scoring late in the first half when Brianne Rodrigue hauled in a long pass from Kassandra Lapierre.

The hero of the semifinal win over Lively, kicker Megan Coutu made good on the convert, giving CND a five-point lead at the half. But the second-half kickoff produced the game's turning point when the Alouettes' receiver walked away from the ball, believing it to be dead, only to see Marymount defender Daria Gorski pick it up and carry it home for the go-ahead touchdown.

By the time that CND regrouped, Marymount had added to their lead thanks to a pair of majors from running back Mia Tullio and another on a quarterback sneak from Katherine Boyce, with Emily Taylor making good on a pair of point after attempts.

"It was different this year in that we have a new team, different in that we're very energetic," noted Joly, a huge contributor despite being only in Grade 10. "But it was similar from the finals last year, where we lost the beginning part of the game and came back in the end."

As the weather turned increasingly frigid just in time for post-season play, securing the opponent's flag became increasingly more challenging, though Joly continued to emerge as a top-notch flag grabber for the Regals.

"You shouldn't even be looking at the players," she explained. "You should be focused on the flag, and who has the ball. If she has the ball, I'm going for that flag — I'm not even thinking about her."

"I think that people can pick up on how to do it, but focus is the key," Joly added.

The Division I final followed the same game plan as the Division B matchup earlier that day.

The undefeated Lo-Ellen Park Knights broke the ice courtesy of a touchdown from Matilda Hick, only to see the Bishop Carter Gators dominate the second half with 27 unanswered points, capturing their first SDSSAA flag football banner after making several trips to the gold-medal game.

Alyssa Menard scored a pair of touchdowns to show the way for the Gators, with Melissa Martel and Alicia Beaudry adding one apiece. Beaudry recorded a pair of converts, with Martel sailing a rouge into the end zone to complete the BAC scoring.

"All the senior students wanted it so bad," admitted Beaudry after the game, currently in Grade 12 and having just completed her third year of flag football at Bishop Carter. "This is the last game we're ever going to play.

"The key was hunger. There's so much passion and heart in this game. I haven't felt it quite like this in any other sport."

One of a handful of athletes who was inserted on both offence and defence, Beaudry acknowledges a preference for the latter, the facet of the game that really raises her excitement level.

"Defence is so much fun," she said. "You get that flag and it's like, 'I stopped that play.'"

The city championship was not only a first for Beaudry and her teammates, but also for coach Edi Nelson, a mainstay in the Gators flag football program for a number of years.
"Our coach had been to the finals four years," noted Beaudry. "We really wanted to do this for her, she really deserved this win."

The SDSSAA flag football championship has been contested since 1981, though the overall level of play and the attention the sport is receiving is increasing noticeably with every passing year.