Flag Football: Midview's amazing first season continues with three more wins, trip to state tourney

AKRON — The journey was already special for Midview. It went undefeated in the regular season to become the only area team to qualify for the inaugural regional flag football championships. The journey took on a fairytale quality Monday night at the University of Akron's Infocision Stadium as Midview qualified for the state championship tourney by winning three games before falling to Madison in the regional title game. The Middies waited to learn their opponent to open the state tournament Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. "I could have never imagined this when we first got together back in February not even knowing if any of the girls had even thrown a football," coach Seamus Higley said. "We're super pumped to be able to do this again this Saturday and spend another week with these seniors." The sixth-seeded Middies opened the night against Westerville North and it was the defense that dominated in a 24-0 win, the the only shutout in the first round of games. Midview took the early lead as Dezirae Thomas hit Leila Morgan with a TD pass. Hannah Bacskay ran one in and Molly Ockuly added an interception return for a score and a commanding 18-0 lead. "It's so crazy what this team has done, we had no idea what we would be when we all got together," Bacskay said. "I knew they (Westerville North) were coming after me, I just ran as fast as I could to the end zone." The second game was against third-seeded West Branch, which had beaten St. Clairsville, and it was tight out of the gate as Midview scored again on its first drive when Thomas hit Leah DiFranco, who was amazing all night with three touchdowns and three interceptions. The Warriors quickly answered with a 45-yard scoring toss from Samantha Beatty to Cambrie Nezbeth to cut the lead to 7-6. Both defenses took over as the score stayed that way until late in the second half when Thomas hit Savannah Holcomb on a long scoring pass with 54 seconds left in the game to go up 15-6. A West Branch score made the final 15-12. The win over the higher-seeded Warriors guaranteed the Middies a trip to the state championships as the final four teams in Akron and the Cincinnati area advanced to play at the Hall of Fame. "It's so crazy to be experiencing this," Thomas said. "I knew Savannah was going to be wide open on that play, it worked just like we drew it up. This night just has been so much fun." The Middies found themselves on the wrong end of the score early against second-seeded Nordonia after Haydn Paul hit Nyla Burns with a fourth-down scoring pass for a 6-0 lead. Midview's first score was set up by a DiFranco interception that Thomas turned into a scoring pass to Kendyl Gregor and a DiFranco 2-point conversion catch for an 8-6 lead. DiFranco put Midview up 15-6 with a nifty cutback move following a short Thomas pass. The Knights added a pair of late scores, but in the interim, Thomas hit Gregor for her second score of the game to give the Middies a 22-18 win. It looked like Midview simply ran out of gas in the regional championship game against a Madison team in its third year of flag football. The Middies simply had no answer for quarterback Gianna LaMarco, who connected on all but two passes, throwing for five touchdowns in the 34-0 win. "We know what we have with our girls, how about what Leah DiFranco did tonight," Higley said. "We had so many girls that had great nights. Kendyl Gregor, Nina Ballachino, Jillian Hubbard were some girls who had great nights, I could just keep naming so many. We are going to enjoy this and the trip next Saturday." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com.