ORANGE — As Northwood’s girls flag football team received the CIF-SS Division 2 championship trophy on Saturday, two players jumped on the grass at El Modena High.
Megan Liu received the trophy for sophomore and in parallel Natalie Keith received the trophy for juniors.
As they did for most of the afternoon, the Timberwolves made the right choice.
Keith threw for five touchdowns and took an interception near the end zone back to help Northwood beat Trabuco Hills 31-17 in the first Division 2 final.
And if that wasn’t enough production from Keith, the quarterback and safety called the offensive plays in place of the missed game coach Harry Lee.
“She is amazing,” said the Northwood’s team assistant coach Michael Stewart. “The forward honors are memorable but halfway through the year she approaches me and asks, ‘Coach Stewart, may I switch to the defense and play?’ “
“When Natalie kind of asks for stuff, you kind of do it,” Northwood’s former football coach recalled with laughter. ‘We said fine you can play safety,’ and it just turned our defense around.’
Northwood tallied a record of 19-6 and in its last three playoff games leading into the final, let in only 21 points.
It was another strong showing on defense for the Timberwolves against Mustangs (17-4) as both outside linebackers Rebekah Welch and Sailor Kensrue joined Keith in intercepting the ball.
Liu chipped in two sacks.
Keith’s interception at her 1-yard line with about seven minutes left in the first half allowed the Timberwolves to maintain a 13-9 lead into halftime. “That was huge,” Stewart said.
Keith immediately scored the next three possessions of the second half with Northwood touchdown passes.
In the opening series, she threw a 4-yard touchdown on fourth down to Hailey Brennan for a Timberwolves 19-9 lead.
Northwood’s defense then sacked Keith on fourth down; the resulting drive began at Northwood’s 41 and Keith hit Brennan for a 12-yard score, despite double team coverage.
Keith added spices to her performance by throwing a 7-yard touchdown to Hannah Kim from a double pass in fourth down.
In the first half, Keith threw two TDs to senior Elise Kung, of which one was a 49-yard TD pass on a deep throw.
However, what Keith enjoyed most was the record breaking success of Northwood.
“Just setting the program (history) and just being ready to build from there”, a travel softball player for Batbusters stated. Looking to the further, I am super excited to keep going. It feels great.”
Trabuco Hills got their early energy from Emma Ortiz, a fast-sprinter wide receiver. The junior, returned the pitch on a hook and ladder received the ball at the end of a 65 yard play by taking the pitch , and sprinted for a touchdown along the side.
Ortiz also received the 1-point conversion ball as the scores go to a dead even, 7-7 Trabuco Hills.
Keith retaliated with the 49-yard TD to Kung putting the score at 13-7 in favour of the Nittany Lions. The Mustangs rallied on the conversion as Madeline Hales stripped the ball and took it the full 80 yards into the end zone for 2 points.
Ortiz made a 1-yard TD reception in the final minutes of the second half from freshman Ellie Tapper.
‘We were thankful and even a little embarrassed to reach the CIF finals,’ Trabuco Hills coach Richard Metzdorff said. “We had a tremendous season … and don’t get me wrong, we will be back for the next season.”
