Northwood stuns fourth-seeded Woodbridge in CIF Division 2 quarterfinal playoff game

Northwood quarterback Natalie Keith waits for the snap in Tuesday’s CIF playoff game against Woodbridge. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Northwood High School’s girls flag football team avenged two losses to Pacific Coast League rival Woodbridge to stun the No. 4-seeded Warriors 20-7 in the quarterfinal round of the CIF Division 2 playoffs Tuesday at Woodbridge.

Woodbridge (21-6) went undefeated in Pacific Coast League play and defeated Northwood 21-6 and 16-6.

The Timberwolves (16-4) were looking to flip the script Tuesday and did so to advance into the semifinals against top-seeded Long Beach Poly, which defeated Esperanza 25-20. Northwood will be the home team for the game on Monday at 3:45 p.m. on campus. Poly (20-8) was the Moore League champion.

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“I’m very proud of the girls, we’ve played them in league and we haven’t really gotten the results that we wanted,” said Northwood head coach Harry Lee. “But I think the girls really rallied today and even practiced yesterday too and we definitely achieved our goal and the girls played well.

“I think there is always added motivation when we play teams from our league. The girls definitely wanted to win and beat Woodbridge because we’ve lost to them twice in league this year.”

“We kept telling the girls an old sports adage, ‘it’s hard to beat somebody three times,’ and they kind of bought into it and we actually came into it with a lot of confidence on both sides of the ball,” added Northwood assistant coach Mike Stewart. “We were fortunate and it paid off.”

Junior quarterback Natalie Keith led the way throwing two touchdown passes. But one of her biggest plays came on defense in the first half when she intercepted a pass and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown, setting the stage for a big day for Northwood.

“I just saw the ball in the air and I was in the right position and I took my opportunity and took it the house,” Keith said.

The win meant a lot to the Timberwolves.

“This win was really big, we have not beat Woodbridge in our years as a program, so we wanted to come out and get the dub, especially in CIF and that’s what we did.” Keith said. “We had a little chip on our shoulder and we got revenge. I think our defense showed up, we performed a lot better, we stayed disciplined and then our offense started connecting at the end of the game and it really just took off from there.”

Later in the half, Woodbridge tied the score when quarterback Laney Brucker connected with Dyllan Harris on a 10-yard TD pass. Brucker hit Sophia Penaflor on the conversion to make it 7-7.

But Northwood’s defense stiffened in the second half and Keith connected with Elisa Kung on touchdown passes of 6 yards each to give the Timberwolves a 20-7 lead. The second score came with 3:45 remaining.

“She’s my receiver,” Keith said.

Northwood was able to make a stop on the next Woodbridge series and got the ball back and drove to the Warrior 1-yard line before taking a knee. Woodbridge had less than 25 seconds left when it took over on the final drive before time expired.

Woodbridge Coach Mark Thompson credited Northwood with the victory.

“Every time we play Northwood, it’s always a tough game,” he said. “The last time we played them it was 13-6, a one score game. They’re a good team and they have very good coaching over there. Their defense was tough, we struggled moving the ball on them, so they changed up their scheme, we tried to adjust.”

Thompson said he was proud of his team’s season.

“It was an amazing season, it was a lot of fun with a new group of girls this year and we made a really good run in PCL winning league, that was our number one goal, second goal was winning CIF, we came a little short on that, the injury bug hit us pretty hard,” he said.

Lee, the Northwood coach, said many players contributed to the win.

“Natalie (Keith) is the leader of our team,” he said. “She’s only a junior but the team really looks up to her. I was on her the whole game because the team feeds off her energy so I really tried to encourage her to be a positive voice, not just to lead by talking to them but also by her actions ….. and she helped us get the win.

“Elisa (Kung) is our go-to wide receiver, she definitely helps us out a lot because of her ability to get off the line quick. She knows how to find space and she wants the ball every single time. She’s also a captain, so the girls look up to her. I know she really wants to win this whole thing before ending her flag football career.”

Both Northwood coaches were pleased with the defense.

“Coach Mike and I are so proud of our defense, we’ve had many variations of defense,” Lee said. “The girls are so coachable, I’m super proud of our defense and what they’ve accomplished the past few games.”

Lee said that Rebekah Welch was one of the top defenders.

“She’s in the right spot every single time. Her ability to pull flags has been amazing,” Lee said. “Also Nicole Theodorou stepped up big-time today, one of our other captains Ava Cruz injured her knee last game so she filled in at the middle linebacker position and did a tremendous job.”

Offensively, wide receiver Marissa Lee had some big catches for the Timberwolves.

It’s the first season of CIF sanctioned post-season playoffs for girls flag football. The semifinals are scheduled for this weekend and the finals on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Fred Kelly Stadium.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com