Del Oro edges Woodcreek to win first Sac-Joaquin Section girls flag football championship

Del Oro High School girls flag football coach Steve Birch may have been the most nervous one of all entering Saturday’s championship game.

Meanwhile, the rest of his 40-plus players showed no signs of nerves, dancing to the Cupid Shuffle in pregame warmups ahead of the biggest game of their lives.

“I think that’s what we do,” said Del Oro linebacker Izzy Scott. “We don’t stress ourselves out, so once we’re on the field, we’re like, ‘Hey, it’s game time. We’re ready to lock in.’”

The dancing would continue for Del Oro after the game and the nerves finally shook away from Birch in the postgame huddle as he proudly announced it was time for his team to go ring shopping. In a marquee matchup of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section’s top two teams, No. 2 Del Oro defeated top-seeded and previously unbeaten Woodcreek of Roseville 14-12 in the Division I championship game at Cosumnes River College.

Only a handful of states offered flag football as a sanctioned sport during the fall season. This was the first in California. Woodcreek and Del Oro were ranked 10th and 14th, respectively, on a national level. They were the top two teams in the Sac-Joaquin Section, so it was fitting that the final game of the season came down to the two Placer County powers.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Birch said before Saturday’s game. “We lost our first game, started 2-2, and then we were thinking maybe we’re not as good as we think we are. Then we won 18 in a row. We’ve had some close calls; triple-OT with Rocklin, overtime with St. Francis. We haven’t blown people out, but we have good girls who work hard and like to compete.”

Del Oro quarterback Delaney Osborne bookended scoring drives in a thrilling seesaw championship game. The junior hit Macie Nelson for a short shovel pass on the Golden Eagles’ opening drive to jump ahead 7-0 and also ran in a go-ahead touchdown run to put Del Oro in front for good with 4:20 left in the game.

“That’s something I’ll hold on to forever,” Osborne said. “I’ll tell my kids that when flag football started that first year ever, I scored the first ever (championship) winning touchdown.”

With Del Oro ahead 7-0, Woodcreek responded at the 3:05 mark of the first half with a 4-yard touchdown strike from Izzy Deveraux to Amaya Grant. The unsuccessful two-point attempt kept Del Oro in front, 7-6, however.

The Timberwolves emerged from halftime with a 60-yard scoring drive capped by a Deveraux touchdown toss to Emily Cser from 6 yards out that put Woodcreek in front 12-7. But another failed two-point try left the door open for Del Oro.

On the ensuing Golden Eagle drive, Osborne connected with Cali Boehrer on big pass plays and Megan Matthews helped inch Del Oro closer to the goal line with steady runs, blazing a path for Osborne to keep a 7-yard touchdown run of her own and give Del Oro a 14-12 lead that held for the remaining four minutes of the game. Megan Matthews ran in the one-point conversion for Del Oro on the final touchdown.

“I think it was staying together as a family, keeping our heads up. We were never distraught,” said Scott, who was disruptive from the Del Oro defensive front and put a ton of pressure on Devereux all game long.

“We were just ready to keep going,” she continued. “We had our heads up the whole time. We weren’t gonna let go. That was just really awesome to see us not let down at all.”

Del Oro lost to Woodcreek 25-6 on Aug. 26, and had hoped for a rematch in the postseason.

“I’m just excited we got to be the first (champions) ever in history,” Scott said after the game. “I feel like that feels so much better than just winning it.”

Woodcreek rode an unbeaten 23-0 season into the finals. The trio of Deveraux and receivers Ryan Nair and Amaya Grant were a huge reason for the Timberwolves’ success.

“I don’t think anyone knew what to expect,” Woodcreek co-head coach Jenna Taipaleti said after beating Merced in Wednesday’s semifinal. “But then, as we started kind of rolling through some games, we started to unravel the magic that is this year’s team. And then we just wanted to keep it going. We knew that if we played our game and kept our head in the game that we could make it to this point of this section championship.”

How we got here

Unanimously approved by the California Interscholastic Federation in January to become a fully sanctioned sport, girls flag football took the Sac-Joaquin Section by storm in 2023. A successful and robust first season culminated in Saturday’s section championship games that included Christian Brothers defeating St. Mary’s of Stockton 6-0 in the earlier D-II title game at CRC.

More than 75 teams across the section began the sport’s maiden voyage in August and were whittled down to 32 playoff teams across two divisions. The competition is expected to grow even more next season with Elk Grove Unified and Modesto City school districts expected to field programs.

“I’m going to look back at the big picture and see where flag football is now, and I’m gonna say, ‘We started that,’” Scott said. “We were the ones who started this sport and I’m so excited for that. I’m gonna make my kids play flag football. It’s gonna be great.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2023 at 5:00 AM.