The wins keep piling up for the Grossmont High School girls flag football team. At 9-2 following last weekend’s tournament at Escondido High School, t he Lady Foothillers sat at the No. 6 rankings slot among San Diego Section teams.
The success is not entirely unexpected, according to head coach Tony Lawrence.
“We are jelling and slowly expanding our playbook and right on track to where we want to finish the season by competing for Division 1 CIF championship,” he said.
Heading the list of top performers are seniors Marissa Farace and Gabi Thomas.
Farace, the team’s quarterback, has thrown fo 1,522 yards with 25 touchdowns while also rushing for three scores. Thomas has caught 29 passes for 479 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed 33 times for 331 yards and seven touchdowns.
“Gabi Thomas is the best player in the county, and we have a deep solid team with lots of options as teams try to double cover her,” the Grossmont coach said. “Our defense has been phenomenal in that the only games we’ve lost that are two game we were shut out.”
It really has been a collective effort.
The Lady Foothillers have recorded 12 rushing touchdowns, including two by sophomore Mariyah Gibbs (29 carries, 176 yards) to go with the 10 combined from Farace and Thomas.
Nine players have caught touchdown passes.
Senior Skyler Glover (13 catches, 202 yards) and junior Leah Garcia (five catches, 77 yards) both had caught three touchdown passes while juniors Chloe Rodriguez (11 catches, 450 yards), Ari Simpson (five catches, 150 yards) and Saraya Roope (nine catches, 88 yards) each have caught two TD passes.
Simpson tops the team with 55 tackles while Thomas has made 30 defensive stops. Junior Emma Hernandez and Gibbs each have logged 15 sacks.
Thomas has reeled in nine interceptions while Garcia has three picks.
Grossmont Hills League play is slated to kick off Sept. 23 at Santana. Besides the Lady Sultans, the Lady Foothillers league rivals include Steele Canyon, Helix and Granite Hills.
Steele Canyon is off to a 5-1 start while Granite Hills was off to a 5-1 start. Helix was 3-2 while Santana was 2-3.
The section playoffs are scheduled for late October to early November. It should be a competitive post-season.
Grossmont finished 3-1 in the Aug. 30 tournament in Escondido.
“We lost the first game (13-0) to a very tough Carlsbad team, it was difficult to overcome early turnovers,” Lawrence said. “Then we righted the ship and won the Silver Bracket by winning the last three games in a row.”
The Lady Foothillers shut out Ramona (20-0), then topped Otay Ranch (24-6) before ending tourney play on a positive note with a tight win over Westview (19-15).
Farace had three touchdown passes against Ramona while Thomas had four touchdowns (two rushing, two receiving) in the four tourney games.
Bonita Vista (5-0), Carlsbad (5-1), Torrey Pines (5-2), Classical Academy (6-4) and Calexico (5-0) all rank ahead of Grossmont.
