IRVINE – It might have been easy to dismiss Northwood. Sure, the Timberwolves were one of the defending CIF Southern Section flag football champions. Sure, they had 13 seniors who were on that championship journey. But they were a .500 team this year.
But what a .500 team they are.
Playing a nearly flawless second half, Northwood defeated Woodbridge, 31-25, to advance to the second round of the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs and continue its defense of the title.
No one played a bigger role than two-way star Natalie Keith. The quarterback passed for 302 yards and five touchdowns, and rushed for 71 yards.
Keith completed 29 of 41 passes with an interception, but was a remarkable 18 of 20 for 184 yards with four touchdowns in the second half.
“Woodbridge is our league rival, so obviously it’s a big win,” said Keith, who is a softball player committed to Arizona and is completing her third season as the starting quarterback. “CIF, first round, we knew it would be a tough game. This was probably one of our better wins this season. I feel like everyone stepped up in their own way, so it was really good to see everyone come together like that.”
Junior Hailey Brennan caught a 16-yard TD pass in the second quarter to keep Northwood in the game, 13-6.
The second-half were distributed this way: 19 yards to senior Tessa Nguyen to tie the score at 13-13; nine yards to senior Marissa Lee to go ahead 19-13; two yards to senior Jessie Wendt to lead, 25-19; and five yards to Brennan to make it 31-19 and essentially put the game out of reach with 4:13 to play
Nguyen finished with nine receptions for 104 yards, Lee with eight for 84, and Brennan with five for 83.
The first series of the second half was the biggest of the game, the scoring drive bookended with 19-yard completions to Nguyen. It was the first of four consecutive touchdowns by Northwood before it ran out the clock.
“What I told the girls was that the first drive would determine the outcome of our game,” Northwood coach Harry Lee said. “We had the ball, everything was going our way. Even at end of the half, we were connecting with our passes.
“It gave us all the confidence and the momentum, and we kept going from there. Football is a momentum game, and that sparked our girls to play harder.”
The receivers in the second half were stellar after a blasé first half in which they dropped four passes.
“I have full trust in my receivers,” Keith said. “I was more happy that they were open, and I knew once we focused more and started catching those, we would be fine.”
They did, and they were.
Woodbridge quarterback Delia Stone, a freshman, completed 19 of 28 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns to three receivers: freshman Lauren Gagnier of eight and three yards; junior Dyllan Harris of 59 yards; and freshman Isabel Louie for 66 yards.
Freshman Loghan Everett didn’t score but led Woodbridge receivers with five receptions for 116 yards.
The long TD by Louie tied the score at 19-19 late in the third quarter, but even that couldn’t stop the momentum of Northwood, which scored on its next two possessions.
Northwood improved to 13-12 overall. The Timberwolves finished third in the Pacific Coast League, behind Portola (24-2) and Woodbridge (17-9).
“We’ve been a very inconsistent team,” Lee said. “There are games we played amazing football, days where we looked lazy and didn’t want to play. The playoffs are a little different, and the girls pushed each other to play their best today.”
In the second half, they couldn’t have been better.
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