Flag football: Midview dreaming of state title

Midview flag football is a melting pot of different athletes.The best of softball, basketball, track, soccer and more all came together to go undefeated in the Northern Ohio Girls Flag Football League's Western Conference, winning the Orange Division and with it an automatic berth to the postseason."We're setting the tone for the future of Midview girls flag football," said Leah DiFranco, a standout in basketball and a ball hawk for the Middies defense, leading the team with 20 interceptions."This is going to be an expectation now. Everyone is just an athlete and on top of that just an awesome deep down. Having great athletes and great people makes for a great atmosphere and we just proved that on and off the field."Midview (10-0) is one of 16 competing in the Browns regional championship, a single‑elimination tournament held today at the University of Akron's InfoCision Stadium beginning at 5 p.m. The Middies earned the No. 6 seed will face Westerville North in the opening round at 6 p.m. with the winner facing either No. 3 West Branch or No. 14 St. Clairsville in the quarterfinals.Division-mate Sandusky (9-1) is the No. 15 seed as a wild card. No. 1 Willoughby South, No. 2 Nordonia and No. 4 Fairbanks round out the top four seeds. The championship game is scheduled for 9 p.m.The top four teams in the Browns regional 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."We're all feeling great," said Hannah Bacskay, who also plays soccer. "We're excited and we're going to come out and play amazing. We've all grown up in our own sports. All of us coming together, we have so many similarities, we're creating bonds and new friendships. We're all so tight. The energy is everything, that's what's helped us succeed."Bacskay and teammate Leila Morgan each have 10 touchdowns, but got there in very different ways. Bacskay is the team's primary running back while Morgan is the team's center and relief valve for quarterback Dezirae Thomas.It's easy to see why Thomas looks her way often as Morgan plays forward on the basketball team."We have great chemistry," said Thomas who also is a pitcher on the softball team. "We work together a lot in practice and we really stick together well. She always reads me, she's always open and her height helps a lot. I can always hit her big on the field."Thomas gives the team an edge at quarterback. Not only does she have a strong arm — throwing for 20 touchdowns — she can beat teams with her legs and often does when she gets the ball out of the backfield. She's run for three touchdowns and many other big gains.Morgan may be her safety net, but Thomas got plenty of weapons on the perimeter. DiFranco and Savannah Holcomb have seven and five touchdowns, respectively, as the other primary receivers. The Middies spread the ball around well with a balanced offense with six other players scoring at least once, producing 282 total points."We were all close to begin with," Morgan said. "We're all really athletic, so that really helps in our gameplay. We're all very dedicated. We come to practice every day and we all just try hard when we're on the field. We know we can count on each other to make the right play."As strong as Midview is on offense, Midview coach Seamus Higley said defense has been a focus from the beginning and the results show. Only one team has scored more than eight points against them. That was Avon Lake, who scored 18 in a Week 10 game that was largely meaningless for Midview having already clinched the division.The Middies posted four shutouts and combined for 33 interceptions. While DiFranco has the lions share, Molly Ockuly has been a key member of the secondary with five. Bacskay (three), Holcomb (two) and Thomas (two) each have multiple interceptions."It's pretty cool that we get to bring all the best girls from all the different sports together," Higley said. "You can tell they've gelled and they're all really close now. It's fun having that many personalities together. I think they all understand the common goal and at the end of the day they just want to win. We're super competitive as coaches, but the girls are just as competitive as us so it makes our job really easy."Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.