A year ago, Piedmont High School’s girls flag football team defeated Encinal, 18-6. A rematch at Witter Field on Sept. 17 did not go the same way.
The Jets dominated from the start and recorded a 69-12 win over the Highlanders. Miya Fujimoto and Dorothy Nemeth scored the touchdowns for Piedmont, both on long pass plays in the second half.
“I watched them in the (preseason) jamboree even though we did not play them and I saw a lot of their girls completing passes and I saw their quarterback had an arm,” Highlanders coach Beth Black said. “I was wondering how that was going to play out. We usually tell them you don’t think about the other team, you think about your own play and you think about handling yourself.”
Nemeth scored first, taking a pass from Edie Elmquist 43 yards for a touchdowns. Fujimoto scored late in the game on a spectacular run after catching a short fourth down pass from Nemeth. Fujimoto avoided one defender, then sprinted past two more to get to the open field. By the end, it was a 60-yard touchdown.
“That was my first time playing on the line because I’m normally a running back,” Fujimoto said. “I just ran a flat out. I saw the defender coming in so I caught the ball and instead of going outside, I just kind of ran in.”
Jazzy Alcantar had a huge game for Encinal, completing 15 of 22 passes for 272 yards and six touchdowns. Her favorite target was Violet Yap, who caught five balls for 122 yards and two touchdowns.
“We haven’t played many live games,” Alcantar said. “We all play a lot of other sports together so we have the chemistry already built. It’s the fundamentals that we work on as a team.”
Alcantar is a shortstop/second baseman on the softball team. “We didn’t expect the score but we worked hard so I’m not surprised,” Alcantar said.
Princess Anderson came on and completed three of five passes for 31 yards and a touchdown for the Jets. Haley Huynh caught two touchdown passes for a combined 20 yards. Lauren Marston had three catches for 52 yards and a touchdown while Alcantar caught Anderson’s touchdown pass from 14 yards out.
Encinal intercepted six passes on the night with Brooklynn Lacy and Rayniesha Staine returning interceptions for touchdowns.
Elmquist completed six of 11 passes for 79 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions for Piedmont. Nemeth was five of 14 for 111 yards with a touchdown and four interceptions. “I think this game taught us that we know how to bounce back,” Fujimoto said, noting the Highlanders were down 40-0 at halftime. “It’s not over until it’s over.”
Piedmont is now 1-4 on the season. The win came over University-San Francisco at Witter Field on Sept. 3 by a 13-0 score. Elmquist hit Nemeth for a touchdown pass to help the cause.
On Sept. 10, the Highlanders fell 28-0 at Berean Christian. And on Sept. 19, the team lost at Alameda, 20-0.