PHILADELPHIA, PA — None of this was supposed to happen. Not this fast. No one outside the Archbishop Ryan girls flag football team envisioned an undefeated season. No one saw the Raiders as contenders for the Catholic League championship.
After all, they lost nine seniors on a team that last year reached the Catholic League semifinals, bowing to eventual Catholic League champion Lansdale Catholic in the final seconds. This season wore the ear mark of a rebuilding year.
Someone apparently forgot to tell Raiders’ coach Sue Dutka and her team, because on Friday, Ryan made a glaring, loud statement that it is the team to beat in battling by Conwell-Egan, 13-7, in a fight between two undefeated teams.
It was a highly skilled, highly entertaining game that saw the Raiders move to 6-0, while Conwell-Egan, which owns a victory over Lansdale Catholic, fell for the first time this season, dropping to 4-1.
Ryan came back after trailing for the first time this season with a pair of touchdown passes by junior quarterback Bree Gavaghan to Kylee Martin, who made a game-high 14 flag pulls, and Amaiya Thurmond, who played a strong overall game. The turning point in the game came on an Emily McDonnell third-quarter interception that led to the game-winning score.
What makes Ryan dangerous is that it was collective effort that won this crucial contest for Catholic League superiority. It was Gavaghan, who had not played organized flag football in nine years, patiently finding open receivers. It was Amber Rothley zipping through the Conwell-Egan defense for major yards. It was tiny freshman Brooke Dasilva causing chaos by forcing Conwell-Egan passers to rush their throws with five sacks.
It was Kayla Morris coming in for one play and making a huge contribution with an interception with 7 minutes to play. It was Ansleigh Lapacinski coming up with a big stop on fourth down that sealed the victory for Ryan. It was Thurmond making big plays both offensively and defensively in the middle of the field, and it was Martin, who is playing flag for the first time, making diving flag pulls and throwing herself everywhere she could to make a play.
“We thought last year was our year with nine seniors, and losing them, we were kind of concerned coming into this year,” said Dutka, who is assisted by Hugh Owens and Bohdan Dutka. “This was supposed to be a rebuild. We pieced some things together. We had 40 girls try out for the team. What I liked about this game is we received something from everyone. This win was a statement that we are and we are going for it all this year.
“It’s usually three or four girls you have to watch out for, but we have an entire team. This team reacted when we down. These girls can rally. We showed faith in these girls, and the girls showed faith in themselves.”
Conwell-Egan and Ryan were both creative on offense, using double reverses and sometimes triple reverses, using option passes, using laterals, and were both very deceptive.
The Eagles scored on their second possession to go ahead, 7-0, when Fran Simeone to hit
Sarah Beck for an 8-yard touchdown, and Olivia DellaVecchio connected with Brianna Jackson for the extra point.
In response, Ryan needed just five plays to tie the score when Gavaghan connected with Martin, and then followed up with hitting Rothley for the extra point.
“This is a lot of fun, and it feels awesome to win, and this means more for me because I’m a senior and it a spur of the moment thing to play flag,” said Martin, who was bleeding on his right knee and covered in dirt dust. “I watched film on Conwell-Egan and studying everything they did. My first key was the middle of the field, and I knew from film, they would run the ball and I had to cut them at the sideline I could. This gives us good confidence to continue.”
Thurmond stressed the Ryan coaches prepared them well.
“Even though we were trailing, I knew we would win this game,” she said. “We came in that prepared. This feels great. We were pretty confident coming into this game and this game made us more confident.”
Perhaps the most confident was Gavaghan, who had played lacrosse her first two years at Ryan and last played flag when she was in fifth grade.
“Playing flag I guess is like riding a bike, because I got right back into it,” she said. “Conwell-Egan is the hardest team we played so far this season. We know what’s coming if we play them again.”
Conwell-Egan’s Hailey Sarzynski was dangerous every time she touched the ball, and Jaelyn Stintsman’s third-quarter interception kept the Eagles within reach.
“We knew what to look for, because Ryan has some really good players,” Conwell-Egan coach Dan Friscia said. “They executed a little more than we did, credit to them. There were some plays when we had open receivers that we weren’t able to get the ball to. We were little too comfortable running ball and we assumed that would continue working. It’s 100-percent that we’ll them again in the playoffs.”
Scoring Summary
Conwell-Egan (4-1) 7 0 0 0-7
Archbishop Ryan (6-0) 0 7 6 0-13
1st Quarter
CC – Sarah Beck 8 pass from Fran Simeone (Brianna Jackson pass from Olivia DellaVecchio)
2nd Quarter
AR – Kylee Martin 3 pass from Bree Gavaghan (Amber Rothley pass from Gavaghan)
3rd Quarter
AR – Amaiya Thurmond 3 pass from Gavaghan (pass failed)
Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito [twitter.com]. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball [twitter.com].