History was made at the Georgia Elite Classic when two flag football games were added to this year’s event held at McEachern, highlighting the sports astronomical growth in the past several years.
Four rosters – the Blue and Gold teams – for the underclassmen and senior teams competed through foggy conditions at Friday and in the opening game of the day, the Gold Underclassmen upended the Blue Underclassmen 14-0.
“I love being out there with the girls,” Gold team head coach Felicia Slaton, who is on Pace Academy’s flag football staff, told Najeh Wilkins after the game.
“We put some girls into different positions that they’ve never played before. We had a defensive player catching touchdowns, we had an offensive player making interceptions, so it was a great day today. We had fun.”
The Gold team – which led 7-0 at the half — opened scoring on a 10-yard pass from Harris County’s junior quarterback Madalynn Cauley to Evans’ sophomore receiver Sadie Morningstar with 5:50 left in the first quarter, marking the first flag football touchdown in the history of the Georgia Elite Classic.
“I do play both ways. I play offense and defense,” Morningstar, who was named the game’s MVP, told Wilkins. “That little corner route, I have been running that all school year, so that really helped today in the game. Sometimes I’ll do a little stutter step and mess with the defense to make sure I get behind them.”
Cauley passed to Morningstar with 1:34 left in the third quarter on a 10-yard pass to cap scoring. On the defensive side, Addison Andrews made two sacks in the victory, helping anchor the Gold Underclassmen. That was something the girls worked on in practice, according to Slaton.
“She was rushing straight on,” Slaton said. “So I told her to get wide because she’s fast enough to help push the quarterback the other way and the other girls will do the rest. If she could push the quarterback left or right, off the route that the coach said to look for, we are good to go.”
In the nightcap game between the Gold Senior and Blue Senior teams, the Gold team secured the 20-13 victory after outlasting a late-game surge from the Blue team.
On the first drive by the Blue team, Alpharetta safety Reagan Washington intercepted a pass to set up the Gold team’s first scoring drive. The Gold went ahead with 6:30 left in the first quarter on a touchdown pass from Mount Pisgah quarterback Riley Pickren to Sequoyah center Clara Williams.
On the ensuing possession, Washington caught her second interception and returned it to the one-yard line to set up a short touchdown run by Washington on the next play. With 1:30 left in the first quarter, a sack from Mary Persons defensive back Kalonis Outlaw forced a punt. The Gold team pushed the lead to 20-0 when Outlaw returned the ensuing punt for a touchdown.
The Blue team got on the board with five minutes left in the third quarter when Sequoyah’s Gracie Fouts caught a short pass from Jasmine Smith. The touchdown capped a drive that included a deep pass from Smith to Evans receiver Wren Chochol, setting up the score. The Blue team cut into the lead 20-13 on a deep touchdown pass from Smith to Fouts at the end of the third quarter.
Each game of the Georgia Elite Classic is aired on the Peachtree Sports Network, Atlanta News First app and will be uploaded on the Score Atlanta Youtube page here.
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