The Lutheran of Orange flag football team celebrates after winning the first CIF Southern Section D1 playoff game in school history. Photo: Harold Abend.
We don’t have the resources to cover girls flag football like we do the five main sports we cover for this web site, but we will do some feature stories and welcome any suggestions for how it can be done. On Saturday, our main girls basketball editor was in Orange County and offered to go to the CIF Southern Section D1 playoff game hosted by top seed Orange Lutheran. He learned a lot and knew beforehand of our Stockton connection to the head coach and the head coach’s husband.
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The rules separating flag and tackle football are pretty significant, and it goes far beyond tackling or grabbing a flag, or that flag football is not a running game, and top teams pretty much employ a spread type of offense, but the end result is the same for both sports.
The bottom line is to be a top-level team you need a solid offensive and defensive game, and obviously you have to score more points than the opposition, and that’s exactly what CIF Southern Section Division 1 top-seeded Lutheran of Orange (20-2) had and did in a convincing opening round 44-12 victory on Saturday over visiting Roosevelt of Eastvale.
Makena Cook is a dominant presence on the field as the QB with her size and arm strength. Photo: Harold Abend.
Part of the intrigue of the Orange Lutheran flag football program is head coach Kristen Sherman is the wife of Lancers’ head football coach Rod Sherman, whose Cal-Hi Sports No. 4 ranked Orange Lutheran team routed No. 5 Servite, 38-0, at home on Friday.
Prior to the game he introduced himself as “the husband of the flag football coach,” but the day after his team’s biggest win of the season, Rod was out there on Saturday supporting his wife as more than her partner in life. Not only did he help prep the field and help with equipment before the game, and lead the takedown after the game, he was on the sidelines assisting Kristen with some of the offensive and defensive play calling. When questioned about his role after the game he mused that he was a “consultant,” but in reality, he is as much of an assistant as any other of the other Lancers’ assistant coaches.
The other item of intrigue about the Orange Lutheran flag football team is its quarterback.
There isn’t one yet, but if there was a Cal-Hi Sports Ms. Football State Player of the Year honor to be awarded, despite being only a sophomore Orange Lutheran quarterback Makena Cook would be one of if not the leading candidate.
In a September story by Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times, he called this elite level soccer player who is a member of the US Flag Football National Team, the best flag football quarterback in Southern California.
At the time, Orange Lutheran was No. 1 the nation among schools in the nation that play girls flag in the fall (some such as Florida do not) and before a couple of losses dropped the Lancers to No. 2 in the computer rankings behind Newport Harbor of Newport Beach. Despite the losses to Mater Dei of Santa Ana and JSerra of San Juan Capistrano, Orange Lutheran was still seeded ahead of second-seeded Newport Harbor due to a head-to-head 28-12 tournament win early in the season, a 40-14 victory over a Classical Academy (Escondido) team that pinned a loss on Newport Harbor and wins that avenged losses to the Mater Dei and JSerra teams Newport Harbor had defeated.
Whether the Lancers are No. 1 or No. 2 in the section at this time is a moot point because unless someone upsets Orange Lutheran or Newport Harbor in the upcoming quarterfinals this Tuesday, or the semifinals on Saturday, the two will meet on November 9 to determine who will likely end as the top flag football team in the final national rankings. Eventually, the CIF will have regional and state championships for girls flag but that will be a few years away. This season is just the second for CIF section playoffs in some sections of the state and the first for the CIFSS and others.
On Saturday in Orange there was no upset, and Cook showed exactly why she is living up to all the accolades thrown her way.
They don’t list heights and weights for flag football, but Cook is solidly built, around 6-foot tall, and has a rocket for an arm that rivals many top tackle football quarterbacks for accuracy and distance.
Against Roosevelt, she didn’t have the astronomical numbers she’s had in the past but her 19-of-28 passing for 250 yards and five TDs was a very solid outing considering it came against a visiting Mustangs’ team that came into the first ever CIF Southern Section Flag Football playoffs with an 18-2 record.
“You don’t see a ton of running in the flag game and we have a quarterback that can throw the ball and that’s our bread and butter,” Kristen Sherman said. “She can throw the ball over 55 yards in the air and that’s pretty impressive.”
Remember, Cook is only a sophomore, and her targets as wide receivers are pretty much all underclass. In fact, of the 20 players listed on the Orange Lutheran squad, there are only three seniors, while there are seven freshmen and five sophomores and five juniors.
“We do have a very young team,” said Sherman with a big grin.
With no kicking in flag football and all kickoffs and punts putting the ball on the 20 of the team getting the ball, Orange Lutheran had the first possession of the game and all it took was six plays for Cook to lead the Lancers to their first score when she found junior wide receiver Ruby Fuamatu for a 6-yard TD pass. A 1-point point after pass to sophomore Josie Anderson it gave Orange Lutheran a 7-0 lead it would never relinquish.
Roosevelt (18-3) came right back and on its second play junior quarterback Karissa Green connected with junior wide receiver Lotolelei Sivas but after the PAT failed it was still the Lancers holding a 7-6 lead.
Orange Lutheran flag football head coach Kirsten Sherman and husband Rod Sherman (the OLu head football coach) had a great weekend coaching their teams. Photo: Harold Abend.
When Orange Lutheran got the ball back, Cook threw an incompletion but on the next play she found Anderson all alone and after throwing the ball over 40 yards in the air it landed perfectly in her hands for a 60-yard touchdown and Olu was rolling at 13-6.
After an interception by freshman Capri Cuneo on the ensuing Mustangs’ possession, the Lancers took advantage of the pick with a 4-play drive that culminated in an 18-yard TD pass from Cook to junior Julia Oberholtzer and it was 19-6.
Orange Lutheran would score twice more before the end of the first 24-minute running clock half. The first of those two scores came on 6-yard TD pass from Cook to Brooklyn Vanderkallen with no PAT, and the second score was on 15-yard scoring strike from Cook to freshman Maddie Milne and with a 1-point PAT it was 32-6 at the break.
Cook, who probably could have rolled up a lot more stats, was pulled after one series of the second half, just like Sherman has done several times this year in blowouts.
Roosevelt scored after Cook was pulled on 10-yard run by Sivas but that would be its final tally.
Touchdown No. 6 for Orange Lutheran came off of a 57-yard pick six by freshman Ava Harrison and the final Olu tally came on a 56-yard TD pass from sophomore backup quarterback Alyssa McLure to freshman Macey DiRoberto. McClure finished 5-of-8 for 97 yards and one TD passing.
Working the pro-style spread offense to near perfection with some astronomical numbers so far this season, Cook is 507-of-701 passing for 5,720 yards and 85 TDs with only 10 interceptions heading into the quarterfinal matchup with Corana del Mar.
“We’re not looking that far ahead. They’re a good football team and there are a lot of good teams on that side of the bracket and obviously on our side too,” said Sherman about the potential match-up with Newport Harbor. “Corona del Mar is the focus right now and we’ll see if we can make it to that semi.”
We’ve heard a lot already about the OLu girls flag team from Kristen’s in-laws and Rod’s parents, Donna and Doug, who happen to live on the same block in Stockton near our Cal-Hi Sports home office. They brag as much about Kristen’s team as they do about their son’s.
We will see if the bragging material that will be heard in a few weeks will be about the first-ever girls flag football CIFSS D1 title.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
