Northwood quarterback Natalie Keith gains yards as Woodbridge’s Garryn Ford pursues. (Photos courtesy John Luciano, For OC Sports Zone).
Northwood’s girls flag football team came away with the CIF Division 2 championship last year.
The Timberwolves, with many players back from that team, definitely want another one.
Tuesday, they took the first step toward reaching another final with a hard-fought 31-25 victory over league rival Woodbridge in the opening round of the CIF Division 2 playoffs, batting back from a seven-point halftime to deficit to move into the second round Saturday against Ventura at Northwood.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Senior quarterback Natalie Keith kept the Timberwolves in the game in the first half, then took her game to another level completing all of her passes in the second half to lift Northwood to the win on the Woodbridge campus field.
“It feels really good, we struggled a lot during the season, this is a really big win for us, I feel like the whole team stepped up,” Keith said. “We just kept telling the team to believe in each other and one play at a time, we knew we could do it and we got it done.”
Keith said the Timberwolves are hoping to reach the finals again.
“That’s the goal, I think we can do it, I’m excited to see where this team goes,” she said.
It was a wild second half between the two Pacific Coast League rivals, who split during the regular season.
Northwood (15-12) moved ahead 19-13 when Keith connected with Alyssa Magpali on an 8-yard TD pass late in the third quarter.
However, Woodbridge struck on its next drive when freshman quarterback Delia Stone connected with Isabel Louie on a 62-yard TD pass to tie the game.
Early in the fourth quarter, Northwood took a 25-19 lead when Keith hit Jessie Wendt on a 2-yard pass play. The Timberwolves added to their lead when Keith threw a TD pass to Hailey Brennan to make it 31-19 with 4:13 left.
Woodbridge responded on its next drive with two big passes from Stone to Loghan Everett to get the Warriors in scoring position and then a TD pass to Lauren Gagnier to close the gap to 31-25 with 1:35 left but Northwood was able to get a first down on its next possession and ran out the clock for the win.
Northwood Coach Harry Lee was pleased with how his team responded in the second half.
“Most of our girls who are playing are returners from last year, but the first game I think is always nerve-wracking and also because whenever we play Woodbridge because we know Woodbridge is a very good team, and a very disciplined team as well, so I think they were a little bit nervous,” Lee said.
“But in the second half, they didn’t drop a pass, we stayed disciplined and we got the win. We’ve been a very inconsistent team over the season, there are games when we played amazing football and there were days where we looked lazy and we didn’t look like we wanted to play but playoffs are a little different, with a different atmosphere and I think the girls really rallied together and pushed each other to play their best today.
“Everyone on offense, Marissa Lee, Tessa Nguyen, Hailey Brennan, Jessie Wendt and even our running back Mako Eguchi, all of them came through at the end.”
It was a promising start for Woodbridge, led by Stone, who threw a 17-yard TD pass to Gagnier to put the Warriors ahead. Then, Dyllan Harris burst through for a 67-yard TD run to give Woodbridge a 13-0 lead in the second quarter.
Keith connected on a 16-yard TD pass to Brennan later in the quarter to cut the lead to 13-6.
In the third quarter, Keith hooked up with Nguyen on a TD and Marissa Lee hauled in the conversion to tie it.
Then the Timberwolves took over.
“It was two familiar teams just battling it out,” said Woodbridge Coach Mark Thompson. “It was the sixth time we’ve met in the past two seasons. We know each other, plays were made on both sides and the athletes that made the most plays won today. They took the ball, drove it down and scored and got the momentum.”
Thompson praised the effort of Stone.
“She played her heart out, she made some really good throws, executed really well, made some good runs and left it all on the field today,” he said.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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