Girls flag football: Midview dominates, clinches division title

AVON LAKE — Midview left no doubts about its playoff fate Sunday.The Middies piled up 67 points and nine interceptions combined in decisive victories against Strongsville and Medina to remain undefeated in the Northern Ohio Girls Flag Football League. More importantly, it clinched the Western Conference Orange Division championship by virtue of its head-to-head win against Sandusky from earlier in the season.Midview defeated Strongsville 33-0 and Medina 34-6."It feels great," said Midview's Leah DiFranco, who had five interceptions on the day. "We come out every day and just play how we're taught to at all the practices and stuff. That was our goal from the beginning of the season, so it's awesome to accomplish that. Everyone does their assignments and I have the privilege to play safety. I just break on the ball."The top 16 teams — 11 division winners and five wild cards — will advance to compete in the Browns championship, a single‑elimination tournament held May 11 at the University of Akron's InfoCision Stadium. The champion and three runner-up teams will advance to the state tournament, held at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton on May 16 against four teams from the Bengals Division."This feels amazing," Midview's Leila Morgan said. "It means a lot. Our team just came together when it really mattered and we locked it in."Midview can rest easy with the division in hand. The same cannot be said for its division mates because competition for the five wild card spots across the 11 divisions will be tough. Wild cards are determined by overall record among non-division winners with ties broken by total points scored.This means wild card hopefuls with two losses — like Avon Lake (7-2) and Amherst (7-2) — need to win out, score a lot of points and hope for some chaos. Entering Friday, 31 wild card hopefuls had two or fewer losses, not counting teams who hold their division lead, but have yet to clinch. It is very unlikely a team with more than two losses will secure a wild card.Of all the teams in the division, Sandusky (8-1) is in the best position for a wild card, as only 16 teams not leading their division had one or fewer losses entering the weekend, including two undefeated teams in second place.Avon Lake and Amherst did their part to stay in the running Sunday, both securing decisive victories. The Shoregals beat Medina 46-26 in their only game, with Team USA Flag Football world champion Izzy Geraci, a North Ridgeville resident, on their sideline. Avon Lake faces a tall task in their regular-season finale against Midview.The Comets piled up 85 points against Black River and Oberlin — two teams still chasing their first win.As for the Middies, they started fast and never let up against Strongsville. Hannah Bacskay scored long touchdown runs on their first two plays of the day, going up 14-0. Every Mustangs drive ended in an interception — two from DiFranco and one each from Dezirae Thomas and Molly Ockuly. Morgan also caught a pair of touchdowns."It gave us confidence," Bacskay said of her first two touchdowns. "After those first couple of plays, we came out strong and kept getting stronger. That gave us a bunch of confidence and we just kept playing like that."Midview kept up the momentum against Medina, securing five interceptions against the Bees. DiFranco added three more — all in the first half — while Morgan caught two more touchdowns.Thomas finished with seven passing touchdowns on the day, including five against Medina."It feels great," Thomas said. "We've been looking forward to this all season. I always have faith in my teammates. If one person isn't open, I know someone else is. It always gives me confidence knowing we always have a play to hit."Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.