Newport Harbor flag football hangs with JSerra before falling in CIF title game
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Three times this season, the Newport Harbor High girls’ flag football team met JSerra in the championship game of a tournament.
The third time came Saturday night, the final game of the biggest tournament of all — the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs.
The Sailors played well in stretches, but JSerra showed why it was the top-ranked team in the nation by MaxPreps.com.
JSerra earned a 40-14 victory to claim the title at Cap Sheue Stadium on the campus of Huntington Beach High. The second straight Open Division title ended the second staight undefeated season for JSerra (28-0), which has now won 56 games in a row.
And the Lions don’t appear to be going anywhere, with sophomore quarterback Kate Meier and sophomore receiver Tessa Russell en tow. Meier threw three touchdown passes to Russell, one touchdown to Abby Vanderweerd and also rushed for two more scores.
“I think making it here meant a lot,” said Newport Harbor coach Jason Guyser, who led the Sailors to their second top-division final in the three years that flag football has been a CIF sport. “I was super, super proud to make it here two out of three years. Like I told the girls, it’s my favorite team. They really couldn’t have had a better season. And just the way that they reacted afterward, the way that they still stayed positive and celebrated, to me, that’s as good as it gets.”
Newport Harbor (23-5), which ended the season ranked No. 3 in the country, trailed just 20-14 entering the fourth quarter. But JSerra added three more touchdowns to put the game out of reach.
The Lions took the lead on just the second play from scrimmage, with Maier connecting with Russell on a beautiful 62-yard touchdown pass over the middle.
“I just ran a post, and Kate has an amazing arm, so she threw that ball right to me,” Russell said. “She threw it really far, and I ran and I got it. Perfect ball, not much else to say. Kate’s amazing.”
Russell was complimentary of Newport Harbor, saying that playing in a competitive game was why she loved the sport and calling it one of the most fun games of the season. Guyser called Russell, who had 12 receptions for 153 yards and the three scores, the best player in the state.
His daughter, Sailors junior quarterback Scarlett Guyser, isn’t far behind. She threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Cora Jordan and a 12-yard score to Emma Yokoi to keep Newport in it.
The second score, followed by Yokoi’s second conversion catch of the game, brought the Sailors to within 20-14 with 4:46 left in the third quarter. But they wouldn’t score again.
Newport Harbor, which finished without a sack on defense, had trouble effectively disrupting JSerra’s prolific passing attack.
“I mean, it’s really hard,” said Sailors senior linebacker Ashlyn Spicer, a team captain on defense. “They’re super athletic. At that point, it just comes down to matching up, and you know, they’re really good players, really athletic players. It was a really good game. Hard to keep up with them, but we tried our best.”
Skylie Cid had a team-best nine receptions for the Sailors, who were able to bring in senior backup quarterback Ally Shaw to finish the game with it out of reach. Spicer made a catch on offense.
Jason Guyser has taken pride in calling his squad the best public school in the country at the sport. He laughed as senior Aliyah Chappell held the runner-up plaque and said, “First is the worst, second is the best,” in the team huddle following the game.
“Just really bittersweet,” Chappell said of her emotions after the game. “I’m really proud of ourselves for getting here, but it’s obviously sad that this is our last game. I’m not even sad about how we lost. I’m just more sad about all the girls. I think these girls have turned into my sisters, and a lot of them don’t play similar sports as I do. So this might be the last time, or it was the last time, that me and Ashlyn get to play in the field with them.”
