Two Central Ohio flag football teams are charging into the regional tournament with spotless records—and championship aspirations. The Fairbanks Panthers and Westerville North Warriors enter the Cleveland Browns Girls High School Flag Football League's regional tournament on May 11 at the University of Akron with a combined 19-0 record, turning heads across the state.
Westerville North (9-0) has been especially dominant on defense. The Warriors allow just 8.6 points per game, a stinginess that has become a point of pride. "We don't want people to score on us. It makes us mad when they do," said junior Gabby Connor. "Coach (Stanley Jackson) has taught us zones others might not have learned yet." That defensive grit has held opponents to eight points or fewer in six of their nine games, and the team surrendered just 77 points all season.
Offensively, senior quarterback Kacee Bohan leads a unit that has scored between 14 and 26 points in all but one game—a 6-2 defensive slugfest against Ready on April 26. The Warriors also credit the school's tackle football team, also coached by Jackson, for sharpening their skills. "They'll scrimmage us and tell us what we did wrong," said sophomore Kimora Jefferson. "We really didn't know how hard it was to pull the flag. It might look easy. It's not."
Westerville North, seeded 11th, opens against another undefeated squad: No. 6 Grafton Midview (10-0) in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Fairbanks (10-0) will face No. 13 Madison (12-4) in their opener. The regional tournament features 16 teams, including 11 division champions and five wild-card qualifiers.
The stakes are high: the top four teams from this regional advance to the state tournament on May 16 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton—the same venue that hosts the tackle football state finals. There, they'll face the top four teams from the Cincinnati Bengals' league. This marks the first year the Ohio High School Athletic Association is sponsoring the state tournament, adding even more significance to every snap.
For these two Central Ohio teams, perfect records are on the line—but so is a shot at history.