In the span of just one month, Watsonville went from being at the bottom of the league to becoming a playoff bound team.
They’ll now be competing in the first-ever Pacific Coast Athletic League Girls Flag Football Tournament championship game against King City at Palma High School on Saturday afternoon at 12:15pm.
Junior center/receiver Stephanie Martinez had a total of four receiving touchdowns Wednesday night to help the No. 8 seed Wildcatz take down two of the top teams in the championship bracket, or the Top-8.
“We’re very excited to go to the championship round,” she said. “Everybody doubted us, so it’s crazy how Watsonville got here.”
In the quarterfinals, Watsonville defeated top seed Hollister, 26-24, on the final play of the game, and they held on to a 20-14 victory over No. 4 St. Francis in the semifinals at Rancho San Juan High School.
Prior to that, the ‘Catz clawed their way into the championship bracket following Monday’s 40-6 crushing win over host Rancho San Juan in the play-in match.
After a rocky start to the PCAL Gabilan Division season, Watsonville won six of its last seven league games in the final stretch of the regular season just to be able to qualify for the tournament.
Martinez said they played with redemption on their minds after being on the losing end in a 44-42 thriller to St. Francis in non-league action on Sept. 24. On the following day, they were shutout by Hollister in a 24-0 defeat in the teams’ first league meeting of the season.
“We started playing tougher,” Martinez said. “That really helped us get aggressive.”
During the final stretch, the ‘Catz handed PCAL Gabilan Division champion Hollister its first and only loss in league play, and then recorded a shutout win over Salinas two days later.
“I was just reminding them we’ve done all the work necessary, mentally and physically, to get us to this point and just to lean on all that experience of that,” Watsonville head coach Zach Cook said. “That’s really what got them over that little rocky start.”
Second time’s the charm
St. Francis—champion of the PCAL Mission Division with a perfect 18-0 record in league play—were coming off a 29-25 win over No. 5 seed Alisal in the second quarterfinals game of the evening.
The Sharks continued their feeding frenzy into the semis. They jumped to a quick 6-0 lead over Watsonville when quarterback Liliana Whitmeyer connected with Aubrey Nualart for a 55-yard touchdown reception.
After forcing the ‘Catz to punt the ball, Whitmeyer gave the ball right back by tossing an interception to Brianna Leon who took it down to St. Francis’ 25-yard line.
Watsonville capitalized on the turnover. Martinez caught the first of her three touchdowns from quarterback Fernanda Lazo, tying the score at 6-all.
Martinez put the ‘Catz ahead, 13-6, after she hauled in a 15-yard TD pass from Lazo, who was another shining star as she continuously dodged defenders and stepped up to make some clutch throws in both games on Wednesday night.
“I have [Lazo] for both basketball season and football,” Martinez said. “We’ve already kind of made a good bond through basketball, so I just bring it out to the field. We connect.”
Watsonville’s defense continued to make some big plays down the stretch. Isabella Alvarez recorded an interception that set the ‘Catz up in St. Francis’ territory.
Moments later, Martinez scored for a third time as she ran to the corner of the end zone for the touchdown reception.
“I watched how Maya [Calfee] shifted the other way, so I knew that was gonna be open,” Martinez said. “And Lazo had a great pass. She overthrew it a little, which made me get wide open.”
The ‘Catz had another huge stop on defense that came on a fourth down play when Whitmeyer’s pass attempt to sophomore receiver Maya Calfee was batted down.
St. Francis was able to cut the deficit at 20-14 with less than one minute remaining. But the come-from-behind story came to an end when Lazo kneeled the ball as time ran out on both the game clock and the Sharks’ season.
“We had an amazing season, we broke a lot of records that I can guarantee are going to be around for a long time,” St. Francis head coach Frank Galvan said. “[We had] 987 points on offense, 18-game win streak for our division title. I think that it’s going to be hard to beat for any school.”
The biggest obstacle for St. Francis was roster depth, which is the same with most other sports programs when there’s barely more than 200 students on campus.
On Wednesday, they played back-to-back games with roughly 10 minutes of rest in between both contests.
“I don’t like making excuses. At the end of the day, it just went their way,” Galvan said. “We made a couple mistakes, it could have been different. But overall, no excuses. We gave it our best shot. My team is young, they’re going to stay hungry.”
Watsonville’s quarterfinals match against Hollister was a doozy, as well.
With time winding down, Leon ran near the right sideline and found an open spot near the goal line. Lazo rifled it to her for the game-winning touchdown as time expired to help lift the ‘Catz past the Haybalers for a second time this season.
“I had a feeling we were going to make it. It’s happened to us before, we’ve been in that situation,” Martinez said. “I was pretty confident in my team.”
In the first half, Alvarez had a 60-yard rushing touchdown, while Martinez was getting warmed up with one TD reception. Naomi Alvarez-Vega recorded an interception just before halftime.
Coming out of the break, Hollister’s Jasayla Mariscal leaped to snatch Lazo’s pass attempt in mid-air for an interception.
Two possessions later, Mariscal zoomed past Watsonville’s defense into the end zone for a 60-yard touchdown. The Haybalers took an 18-14 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the game, and were threatening to add more points.
Instead, it was Alvarez-Vega who grabbed her second interception of the evening. It became a classic heavyweight boxing match from there on out.
The ‘Catz threw a left hook after capitalizing on the turnover. Alvarez found the end zone for a second time with a TD reception from 1-yard out, putting Watsonville ahead at 20-18.
Hollister quickly responded with a series of jabs as quarterback Ava Garcia drove her team down the field. She capped it off with a 15-yard touchdown pass to both Bianca Guerra and Briella Rose Perham, who simultaneously caught the ball in the end zone to deliver a hard cross on the chin.
The ‘Catz were on the ropes, trailing 24-20 with 52 seconds remaining in the game, but it was far from over. Lazo orchestrated a masterful drive of her own using her legs and arm to get the job done, including the game-winning toss to Leon. Boom, a huge uppercut for the knockout punch.
“Hats off to those coaches and those programs, and those girls. They fought hard, they worked hard and they deserve some credit,” Cook said.
Next up, Watsonville heads into the title bout against No. 3 seed King City to determine this year’s PCAL flag football champion.
“We’ve worked hard for this, let’s finish the job,” Cook said.
