By Mason Byers
Staff Writer
Perfect. That is exactly what the Hamilton Huskies flag football team was this season.
Hamilton fought back this year after losing in the semi-finals last year and prevailed on top in 2024. The Huskies faced Red Mountain in the 6A championship game, which will go down as a classic.
The Huskies took home the championship hardware with a 21-17 win over the Mountain Lions. However, it was not an easy win by any means.
On the very opening drive of the game, Hamilton turned over the football, after senior player on Red Mountain Trisha Stine-Groves came down with an interception. Luckily for the Huskies though they were able to force a punt.
Early struggles continued though as on their second drive, they gave up another interception. This time it was caught by Mountain Lions junior Joelle Haddad. Which then set up a 1-yard rushing touchdown by the senior Didrika Valentin.
Red Mountain took a fast 7-0 lead in the first quarter, and this was the first time all season Hamiton had trailed in a game.
Head coach for the Huskies, Matt Stone, knew his team was going to be challenged in this game and would have to dig deep.
“I told the girls I expect a heavyweight fight,” Stone said. “When we finally got punched in the mouth, we got up off of the ground and fought back.”
Fought back is what Hamilton indeed did in the second quarter. As about midway through the second quarter, they finally put some points on the board. It was to none other than junior superstar, Samaya Taylor-Jenkins catching a 25-yard touchdown from freshman quarterback Marlie Phillips.
The Mountain Lions then drove back down the field to score an 18-yard field goal made by sophomore Tatum Gowdy. They took back the lead, 10-7, late in the first half.
Starting to find a rhythm though, the Huskies marched right back down near the red zone before the end of the half. Phillips once again found Taylor-Jenkins, this time for a 28-yard touchdown, to give Hamilton their first lead of the game heading into halftime.
Phillips knew that they had to turn the tide after a shaky start to the game.
“Those first two drives were sloppy offensively,” Phillips said. “I’m glad we picked it up, or else this game wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.”
In the third quarter, the Huskies were holding their ground and didn’t let Red Mountain get much of anything going. Then, of course, in the third quarter, Taylor-Jenkins scored for the third and final time of the night. It was a 6-yard touchdown catch after a methodical drive to get near the goal line.
After putting up record-breaking statistics this season, Taylor-Jenkins was quick to thank everyone around her after another amazing performance.
“I couldn’t do it without the fans, my teammates, my amazing quarterback,” Taylor-Jenkins said. “My amazing coaches, they had a play for everything.”
The Mountain Lions then put together an efficient drive to set themselves up at the 2-yard line before the end of the third quarter.
Then the fourth quarter became a nail-biter.
On the very first play of the fourth quarter, senior for Red Mountain Sierra Mellish scampered her way into the endzone for a 2-yard touchdown to cut the lead to just four.
After a couple of back-and-forth drives by both teams that did not go anywhere, Red Mountain got the ball in their own territory with 1:07 to play in the game.
In a wild play, junior quarterback for Red Mountain Da'Koreyauna Roberts found Mellish deep down the field to set them up on Hamiltons' 3-yard line for one last play.
Everything on the line, 3.3 seconds left 3-yards to go. A winner was going to be crowned after the play.
Red Mountain did a direct snap to Mellish, however sophomore rusher for Hamilton, Demi Woods, got the flag pull which ultimately ended the game, and crowned Hamilton as the 2024 6A champions.
Hamilton did it, they finished their season 17-0, and they had a point differential this season of +489. An outstanding and dominant season and they now sit at the top of the 6A conference.
Stone had a mentality that after every win they were 1-0 no matter what their record showed.
“I was asked what does it feel like to go undefeated, all I am thinking about is how does it feel to go 1-0,” Stone said. “It’s the best one-win season I have ever had.”