SACRAMENTO — Hughson High, in its first year fielding a flag football team, captured the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 championship with a stunning 26-13 upset of undefeated and top-seeded Colfax on Saturday at Cosumnes River College.
Flag football, which is relatively new to the entire section, crowned teams in just two divisions last season before adding two more divisions this season. That means the Huskies will forever have the distinction of being the section’s first D-4 champ.
“I’ll tell you, I have mixed emotions about winning a flag football title before a baseball title,” Charly Garza, also the school’s longtime baseball coach, joked. “It was unbelievable … we beat the (then) 25th-ranked team in the state.”
Colfax (15-1) ran over its opponents this season by an average score of 38-6, putting up gaudy, impressive statistics along the way. Hughson knew it needed to keep the Falcons’ quick-strike offense on the sideline.
Flag football games are 48 minutes long, consisting of two 24-minute halves with running clocks (only in the final two minutes does the clock stop for incomplete passes or stepping out of bounds).
The Huskies’ opening drive chewed up nine minutes off the clock, culminating with Leah Hobby’s 8-yard TD strike to Presley Wells with about 15 minutes to play in the first half.
When Colfax finally did get the ball, Peyton Avila picked off a pass on the second play from scrimmage.
“I was playing middle safety and I was just kind of just reading the quarterback’s eyes,” said Avila. “A girl cut into my zone, and I followed her. The sun was in my eyes, but I was able to catch it.”
Hughson then marched in for a two-touchdown lead when Hobby hit Avila for a score.
The Falcons went three-and-out on their next possession and Hughson made it 19-0 when Hobby and Wells hooked up for the second time in the half.
The Huskies’ plan worked to near perfection, but Colfax was able to strike for a quick score with seconds to play in the first half to make it 19-6 at the break.
Hughson was able to put the game out of reach when Hobby and Wells hooked up for a third.
“I told the girls to remember what we’d talked about,” said Garza. “If they start to crowd us at the line of scrimmage … go deep.”
That’s precisely what happened. Colfax overplayed the short routes, and Hobby and Wells made an adjustment at the line of scrimmage.
“I didn’t know she was going to run (a deep route), but I knew I wanted her to run it,” said Hobby, a junior. “When she ran it, I threw it, and when it left my hand, I knew she’d catch it and knew she’d keep running.”
“I read that the defense was pushed up and I just went,” said Wells. “Leah saw me and she just connected. She hit me at the perfect time.”
Hughson (17-6) will lose 11 seniors to graduation next spring and will have to rely on a junior varsity squad to fill the gaps. Hobby, for one, doesn’t think that will be much of a problem.
“This was our first year, too,” said Hobby, pointing out that all of Hughson’s players this year were making their varsity debuts, regardless off class. “The JV will get trained up just like we did this year.”
Hughson community members lined the streets at 7:45 a.m. Saturday as the team vans made their way out of town.
“There were people lined up all the way down Main Street,” said Garza. “There were parents, grandparents, kids with signs. Somebody said, ‘Now I know how the boys (football players) feel.'”
