High School Girls Flag Football: Lennard (FL) knocks off No. 1 ranked Alonso

TAMPA, Fla. – Ruskin (FL) Lennard head coach Travis Combs has had to navigate his Longhorns’ girls flag football team through one of the toughest schedules in the country and on Thursday night, it all paid off.

Playing the nation’s No. 1 ranked Tampa (FL) Alonso Ravens, Lennard’s defense stepped up to the occasion paired with a strong showing from freshman quarterback Hayden Schofield to notch a 13-7 victory in a Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) Class 4A, Region 2 final.

“We played an extremely hard schedule,” Lennard head coach Travis Combs said to Rivals on Thursday night. “We made some decisions as a team to go a different route at quarterback. We love Sydney (Elizondo) to death. She is a great player and we were just trying to find the spark and Hayden (Schofield), the freshman, came in. Her first three wins are Bloomingdale, Plant, and now Alonso in the regional championship. Her only loss in JV was to Alonso right here so to get that avenged, the loss was really cool. Our defense stepped up in a huge way, man.”

The Longhorns (12-7) defense was determined to get their offense as many opportunities as possible on offense, picking off Ravens’ senior quarterback Gabby Werr (25 of 43 passes, 205 yards) three times on the night.

Lennard opened the game with a scoring drive right out of the gates when Schofield connected with junior wide receiver Makenzie Walker on a touchdown pass to put the Longhorns up 6-0.

Alonso (19-1) answered right back when Werr connected with trusty wide receiver Mia Garcia (two catches, 47 yards) on a touchdown to put the Ravens ahead 7-6. Both defenses took over from that point on as neither club could find their footing as they looked for any momentum to take hold of.

Combs and crew would get multiple scoring opportunities in the redzone, with Alonso’s defense standing tall but it would be Lennard’s last offensive chance being converted.

Schofield would find sophomore wide receiver Grace Valenzuela in the corner of the endzone with under five minutes left in the contest to put the Longhorns up 13-7. Lennard’s defense would hold strong as Alonso would get a couple more tries, but to no avail.

Now for the second time in program history, Lennard returns to states next Friday against Harmony in a Class 4A state semifinal. Combs is set to leave Lennard after the season as he has accepted to become the head coach at Indiana Wesleyan University and hopes he can cap his final season with the Longhorns with a state championship in hand.

“When I when I announced that I was going, I said let’s finish this thing with a ring,” Combs added. “And there was a lot of time in that maybe that wasn’t gonna happen. Then just all of a sudden, this team just says like, no, we’re not giving up. We’re all gonna be who we are and you know it’s hard to beat Alonso at Alonso. I’ve been here four times. This is my third time with Leonard, once at Riverview, and two and two. So, it’s hard to get here. I tell everyone, you guys think it’s easy just to get to the Elite Eight? So I couldn’t be proud of this team. I feel like I’m dreaming, I honestly do.”