FORT WALTON BEACH — Crestview High School’s flag football team showed improvement from the first game of the season until Tuesday’s finale.
The Bulldogs only had one senior and the roster was filled with freshmen and sophomores as well as a first-year head coach, Matt Sanders.
Crestview’s youth showed Tuesday against Niceville in the district semifinals. The Eagles scored early and often on the way to a 32-12 win.
Crestview-Niceville flag football photos>>>
There was some controversy in Niceville’s runaway win.
Sanders said he would protest the game because the Eagles wore black flags against their maroon uniforms. The rules state that teams must have flags that are contrasting colors to the uniforms.
Sanders refused to make the flags a major issue though. And even he admitted the dark flags didn’t have much to do with the final outcome of the game.
“Niceville is a good team and they beat us in every aspect of the game,” he said. “We made too many mistakes and in the execution of our game plan.”
The Eagles scored on the game’s first possession on a 65-yard run by Ashley Frank and Niceville never trailed.
Another Eagle touchdown on the first play of the second quarter put Niceville up 14-0.
Crestview showed some life late in the first half when Netaya Winston, who is a post player on the Bulldog basketball team, used some of her rebounding skills, Winston went up for a pass from Aliyiah Brown that had been tipped by an Eagle defender and hauled it in for a touchdown.
Niceville answered with another score late in the half to lead 20-6 at the intermission.
The game continued to belong to Niceville in the second half as the Eagles scored on their first two possessions of the third quarter to push the lead to 32-6.
Crestview picked up a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter when Winston showed off her arm hitting Malaysia Moore for a touchdown pass.
As the season ended Sanders admittedly would have liked to have won more games, but he was happy with the improvement he saw from the team.
“They improved drastically,” he said. “And that’s what I’m looking for. And that’s what I got.”
Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview's flag football team falls to Niceville (PHOTOS, VIDEO)