By Cali L, staff writer
On a revenge tour, the Galileo girl’s flag football team captured the championship with a double OT victory against the Lowell Cardinals (18-12) this past Saturday, April 15th at Galileo. The Lioness’s victory was even sweeter as they got redemption after falling short in last year’s championship game.
Starting off strong on their opening drive, Lioness quarterback Sariyah D. threw a 65-yard touchdown to senior receiver Julieta J. to give the Lions a 6-0 lead. The lioness stayed in control until the 2nd quarter when the Cardinals ran the ball in for a score to tie the game.
A few moments later, Sariah threw an interception that the Cardinals returned for a score. The lioness went into halftime down 12-6. “I was stressed but tried to stay level headed & stay confident because I knew I needed to come back and help lead a score; since there was a whole half of football still to play,” said Sariyah.
Throughout the 3rd quarter & even into the 4th quarter the lioness were in a tough fight, as the score remained the same. But with minutes left in the game, the lionness took advantage of one of the few remaining possessions when Julieta ran the ball 5 yards to the touchdown to tie it up. Unable to capture the extra point the score was remained tied and the game went into overtime.
Neither team was able to clinch a point the game went into overtime.
In overtime, each team had 4 downs to score a touchdown. The lioness played offense first, but was unable to score and the ball was turned over to Lowell. The lioness defense was up to the challenge though as they managed to stop the Cardinals.
This led the game into the second round of overtime. This time the Cardinals offense went first, and although they came really close to scoring, the lioness’ defense came through again and stopped them. With the lioness 10 yard away from scoring, and down to their last attempt, Sariyah launched the ball to junior receiver Daniela C , out jumped the Cardinal defense to bring home the championship for the Lions.
Team captain Cali L says, ”We worked hard for this moment, everything we’ve worked on since the beginning came out in this game. I’m so proud of us that we pulled through and fought till the very end. Hard work pays off.”
