Shut out for most of the first half Monday night, No. 3 River Islands came barreling back and got within striking distance but could not close the gap in a 27-22 loss to visiting sixth-seeded Sutter in the quarterfinals of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V flag football playoffs.
“First, I want to give Sutter full credit,” Riptide coach Joe Cataline said. “They played a fantastic game.
“That said, we were making mistakes that were not characteristic of who we are, but in the second half you saw us playing our game, and that was a big difference from the first. It was one of those nights.”
Mahi Gill pulled in a 10-yard pass from Analeyah Trigos (25 of 43 passing, 238 yards, three touchdowns, interception; nine carries, 29 yards) with 1:50 remaining in the game to bring River Islands (19-1) within 27-22. The Riptide elected to go for a procedural onside kick, which in flag football is one play to gain 20 yards. River Islands came up short, but forced the Huskies (20-8) to go three and out giving the Riptide one last chance only to run out of time.
“In the second half they came to play,” Sutter coach Brandon Jackson said. “My girls may have thought that they had it in the bag, but it’s a tale of two halves.
“You have to play the two halves no matter how many points you are up in the first half, and even though they came out to play in the second half, but my girls capitalized on their mistakes and scored when they needed to score and they did big things. I am very proud of them.”
River Islands got on the board with 2:13 left in the second period on a 9-yard pass from Trigos to Octavia Orndoff (six receptions, 59 yards) to make the score 20-7. It took less than two minutes for the Riptide to get on the board in the second half when Brianna Lee (three receptions, 29 yards) pulled in an 18-yard scoring strike from Trigos with 10:37 left in the third quarter to bring River Islands within 20-14.
The Riptide’s Camila Tovar Delgado pulled in five receptions for 59 yards and Sophia Tovar Delgado snagged an interception.
Sutter’s Mia Bautista (14 of 25 passing, 173 yards) threw for three touchdowns and ran for one with MiaBella Bryan (three receptions, 57 yards) pulling in two touchdown catches.
