The WJ girls’ flag football team lost 12-7 to the Whitman Vikings in the MCPS playoff round of eight on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
The Vikings started with the ball in the first half, scoring a touchdown in the first five minutes. The Vikings missed their extra point attempt, bringing the score to 6-0. Later in the first half, WJ was able to score a touchdown and the extra-point giving the Wildcats a 7-6 lead going into halftime.
As the second half progressed, chaos erupted. Whitman ran the ball in for a touchdown and the Vikings player spiked the ball. Under flag football rules, that is a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the player’s foot was in the end zone before it was spiked so it was called a touchdown. Whitman failed to convert the extra-point once again, making the score 12-7. With 1:26 left in the game, the Wildcats had one more chance to score, but they were unable to score due to a failed fourth down conversion.
Coming into this game, WJ knew that Whitman was going to be hard to beat. Even though Whitman was ranked 12th in the division and WJ was ranked sixth, WJ only beat Whitman by a point in their first and only meeting during the regular season. Since that game, WJ had suffered a number of injuries to key players.
“It was a tough loss,” coach Butch Worden said. “I had girls that couldn’t make it here because their cars broke down so there was a lot of extra stuff that just made the game very tough to approach. We played amazingly all year long and then had injuries last game. There’s always room for improvement but I’m happy where we were. When we ended up fifth seed out of the whole county that’s pretty good and we were in a tough conference.”
Graduating seniors, quarterback Ellie Weinstein and center Naamiah Corke, reflect on their season with the team.
“I’ve never felt this kind of pressure before. I didn’t know what to expect, didn’t know how to feel. When I realized that I had such an amazing team, I remember who the people around me were. When I’m just focused I can trust every single person on my team to be the best version of themselves,” Weinstein said. “I’m really, really disappointed we didn’t win this game. I think that we could have, but obviously injuries happen and as coach says, ‘we play with the soldiers that we got’ and we definitely did that and we played a heck of a game.”
Senior center Naamiah Corke also had a lot to say about her first season with the flag football team.
“It’s so cool to be a part of this experience for girls athletics in general,” Corke said. “I love all of these girls so much. Obviously what happened at this game wasn’t what we wanted but for me that changes nothing about how I feel about this season and the success we had. We were division champs and aside from that just individually we all had so much growth and I think we accomplished a lot and I’m super grateful I got to be a part of it.”
The first ever MCPS flag football season was a positive one for the Cats, ending with a 6-2 regular-season record, only losing to the Poolesville Falcons and the B-CC Barons. The Wildcats will look to build off of this season’s results in year two.
