Throckmorton leads McClatchy shootout win over West Park for D-I flag football title
What a 12-month run it’s been for McClatchy senior quarterback Daisy Throckmorton.
She became a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section champion on the basketball court last February and had a trip to China over the summer to compete with her Lion teammates. She eventually suited up as the first female quarterback in the history of the McClatchy tackle football program this year.
Saturday at Cosumnes River College, she updated her resume to read “multi-sport section champ.” Throckmorton threw five touchdown passes and led second-seeded McClatchy to a 33-25 win over top-seeded West Park in the Division I final.
“It’s just been a blessing,” Throckmorton said. “There’s not many people that get to do all that, and I’m so blessed and so thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to do all those things.”
A year after McClatchy debuted on the flag football scene with 23 straight wins and a 27-2 overall record in 2024, the Lions hoisted their first blue banner. It was a vision that coach John Avery had from the beginning of the program.
“I felt exactly how I saw it,” Avery said. “And we were on schedule, more importantly, and we finished the job.”
Throckmorton, The Sacramento Bee’s 2024 Offensive Player of the Year, is a frontrunner for overall Player of the Year in 2025 after her championship performance. Her five touchdown passes were spread out to Savanna Hill (24 and 28 yards, respectively), London Lee (14 and 64 yards) and Mazie Kergan (6 yards).
McClatchy’s defense stood tall on the opening drive of the game as West Park drove down knocking on the door of the end zone. Emily Cory completed a pass to Callie Gemmell, whose back was at the goal line before the Lions pulled her flag for a goal-line stand.
On the ensuing Lions possession, Throckmorton hit Lee for a 14-yard score to put McClatchy up 6-0 at the 3:16 mark of the first quarter. Throckmorton then found Hill on the next McClatchy drive for a 24-yard catch-and-run for a score, extending the Lions’ lead to 12-0 early in the second.
West Park responded on its ensuing drive as Cory took it herself on a 9-yard run to bring the Panthers back to a 12-7 deficit with 8:43 left in the second.
The third quarter transformed into a shootout, as Throckmorton once again found Hill for a 28-yard strike before West Park responded with an 8-yard TD toss to Gemmell to make it 19-13.
Throckmorton then hit Lee for a 64-yard connection to re-establish a two-score lead at 26-13. But Cory and the Panthers answered with a 55-yard connection to Annalyse Braden to make it 26-19 before the fourth quarter.
Throckmorton’s fifth TD pass of the night found Kergan from 6 yards out to extend the McClatchy lead to 33-19 with 10 minutes to play. Both teams traded punts before West Park found the end zone once more on an 11-yard pass from Cory to Nylea Esteban-Avilla to shrink the gap to 33-25 with 3:19 to play.
But the Lions were able to control the ball on offense and pick up the game-clinching first down, allowing Throckmorton to take a victory knee and give McClatchy the D-I title.
After sharing the Metro League championship at 9-1, West Park and McClatchy were the only 1-vs.-2 matchup remaining in the section finals. Although they split their Metro League meetings, the Panthers drew the No. 1 seed by virtue of the league’s tiebreaker system. Overall, these two teams have played each other eight times over the past two seasons with McClatchy winning six times.
West Park defeated Tokay, two-time defending section champion Del Oro and Vacaville in overtime to reach the finals. McClatchy, meanwhile, went through Central Valley, Turlock and Pleasant Grove on its path to the championship game.
This story was originally published November 8, 2025 at 8:11 PM.