La Habra players and coaches after Tuesday’s playoff victory. (PHOTO: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).
La Habra quarterback Kaitlin Cauley threw two touchdowns passes to Gisselle Virgen to lead the Highlanders to a 12-7 victory over Cypress in the first round of the CIF Division 2 girls flag football playoffs Tuesday night at Cypress.
The Highlanders (9-9) appear to be hitting their peak at the right time of the season. La Habra started the season 1-6 and has won eight of their last 11 contests, including six of the last seven games.
The Highlanders advance to the second round and will play Oaks Christian at home on Saturday afternoon.
Cauley was phenomenal on both sides of the ball, rushing for 92 yards and completing 16 of 22 passes for 131 yards and touchdown passes of 8 and 18 yards.
Cauley, along with Virgen, Hayden Carson and Layla Bartosik applied heavy pressure on the Cypress quarterback, recording four sacks and forcing numerous hurried passes.
“Kaitlin simply took the show over,” said La Habra Coach Robert Atanay. “Our plan was to apply heavy pressure on their quarterback and give their quarterback no time to throw. At the end of the day, we executed our plan.”
Cauley said the win gives the Highlanders momentum.
“This definitely gives us motivation to continue to work harder and also gives us excellent momentum going forward,” said Cauley, a sophomore. “We can’t get upset when things go wrong. We stayed relaxed and slowed the game down.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Cauley threw an 8-yard TD pass to Virgen, on a fourth-down play, in the back of the end zone to give the Highlanders a 6-0 lead with 10:43 left in the half. Virgen had an outstanding game catching five passes for 55 yards and stopped Centurion runners for no gain, deep in Highlanders’ territory, twice on the games’ final drive.
Cypress (14-9) took the lead late in the third quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run. The Centurions added the extra point and led 7-6 with 2:04 left in the quarter.
After getting stopped at the Centurions 3-yard line following a 13-play drive, in the fourth quarter, La Habra forced a three-and-out and got the ball back.
Cauley led the Highlanders down field and completed a crucial fourth-down pass to Virgen for 15 yards and a first down to keep the drive alive with under two minutes to play.
Two plays later, Cauley launched a pass into the end zone that Virgen jumped high in the air to catch and then had to fight off a defender before both players fell to the ground. The referee signaled a touchdown for La Habra and the Highlanders retook the lead 12-7 with 1:23 remaining.
“I got my hands on the ball first and caught it and then we both fell to the ground and we both had our hands on it, but it was ruled a touchdown for us,” said Virgen.
However, the Centurions would not go quietly.
Starting at their own 8-yard line, Cypress, with the benefit of a long pass play and a penalty, had a first and goal at the Highlanders’ 7-yard line with 42 seconds to play.
Virgen stopped two Cypress running plays for no gain. Then on third and fourth down, Centurions’ passes fell incomplete in the end zone with 35 seconds remaining. La Habra then took over possession of the ball and ran out the clock, securing the victory.
“We applied heavy pressure on the quarterback the whole game and played good man-to-man defense,” said Carson, a freshman who had two sacks and also provided excellent protection for Cauley.
“We worked hard and did not give up,” said Bartosik, who had a sack and an interception near the Highlanders’ goal line to foil a Centurions’ potential scoring drive in the first quarter. “We play for each other and we executed.”
La Habra out-gained Cypress in yards 249-158.
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