Girls flag football: Midview caps perfect regular season with win over Avon Lake

ELYRIA — With the division in hand, perfection was all that remained for Midview.The Middies capped an unbeaten regular season with a 25-18 win over Avon Lake at Elyria on Friday and now prepares for the postseason.Midview (10-0) is one of 16 teams competing 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.Avon Lake (7-3) likely saw its wild card hopes fade as it's unlikely teams with more than two losses will qualify. Amherst also was playing to keep its playoff hopes alive, but its game against Strongsville was not complete at press time.Midview's high powered offense scored all of its touchdowns in the first half. Quarterback Dezirae Thomas threw for three of them — connecting with Hannah Bacskay, Leah DiFranco and Leila Morgan — while Bacskay ran for the other. DiFranco also added two more interceptions, both in the first half."It feels great," Thomas said. "We were hitting a lot of spots and getting a lot of people open. We really focused on keeping things contained. We were up so we knew we had some cushion."Avon Lake (7-3) was playing to keep its slim chances at gaining one of the five wild cards alive. The Shoregals, down 25-6 at halftime, mounted a furious rally with quarterback Brienna Droke finding Molly Milligan for her second touchdown of the game. The 1-yard score on fourth down was set up by a huge pass to Ali McClelland on the play before.Droke connected with Riley Koury for another big touchdown, cutting Midview's lead to seven points entering the final minutes. The Shoregals used their timeouts to conserve time, but Thomas astutely avoided defenders in the final two plays to run out the clock."We knew coming into this game that this team was undefeated and they were really good," Droke said. "Everyone contributed with those offensive plays. I just looked for my wide receivers and they were open. This was our first year doing flag football at Avon Lake. I'm glad we got the team we had because they were all really fun to hang out with and fun to play with."Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.