Fremd defeats previously unbeaten Guilford, captures 1st IHSA girls flag football championship

VILLA PARK – Little things initially kept MacKenzie Drake from joining the girls flag football team at Fremd.

On Saturday, Guilford couldn’t stop the junior linebacker from pressuring quarterback Aisha Smith during the first-ever IHSA girls flag football state championship at Willowbrook High School.

Behind Drake’s three sacks and constant defensive pressure and senior quarterback Lily Mayer’s four touchdown passes, Fremd handed Rockford Guilford its first loss of the season while becoming the first state champion in the rising sport, winning 24-12.

“At first, I wasn’t sure about flag football,” Drake said. “I thought I wasn’t going to do it, but my mom motivated me to do this. She knew I wanted to do it and it was just little things that stopped me from doing it, but she knew this is what I wanted to do. She’s my main person that is always there for me, supporting me, and I’m thankful for her.”

State title games obviously involve pressure. Drake applied it early and late into the afternoon.

“I just focus and have speed and precise time,” she said. “I really had to focus a lot and just focus on the quarterback and nothing else. First half I kind of let things distract me, but kind of got myself together and was able to just focus on the main goal and that’s how I was able to get sacks.”

Fremd (13-4) is basically a bunch of fantastic athletes playing a new sport. The fact that in a few months they went from newcomers to state champs speaks volumes about the level and depth of their athletic talent.

“Lots of our athletes are three-sport athletes because these girls love to play,” Fremd coach Rebecca O’Dette said. “They’re competitors. They want to go after it. They want to win championships and that’s why we’re here, because these girls are so dedicated to what they do and their athleticism.”

They’ve worked hard, too.

“They’ve worked so hard this season,” O’Dette said. “To come from a very first year program - these girls have never touched a football before August, and to win the state championship just shows the level of athletes that we have on our team. They’re just studs.”

Great field position helped Fremd tie the game at 6-6 just before halftime.

After forcing Guilford (21-1) to punt, Fremd took over just 36 yards short of the end zone after a strong return from freshman Asya Poyraz.

“I’ve never played flag football [before this fall],” she said. “I’ve always wanted to as a kid, but there was never anything close enough. I just love sports. This is basically my filler sport and I’m honestly speechless that we won. I had no idea.”

Mayer (18-of-20 passing for 217 yards, plus 88 yards rushing) rolled out before tossing a 6-yard touchdown pass to senior Ella Todd (five catches, 45 yards) with 19.8 seconds before halftime tying the game.

Fremd received the ball to open the second half and wasted little time before taking the lead. Mayer tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to freshman Jordan Farrell (3 receptions, 44 yards) who found herself wide open in the corner of the end zone for a 12-6 lead.

With a little over 10 minutes left to play, Guilford tied the game at 12-12 when freshman quarterback Hannah Jordan tossed a 6-yard touchdown pass to senior Kamorrah Stron.

Looking to become the first team to convert a 2-point try in the fourth attempt combined between the teams, Guilford was stopped in its heels as Drake got to Stron in the backfield.

Key catch and carries from freshman Reese Bennett and Todd helped Fremd move downfield on its ensuing possession. That helped set up a go-ahead 34-yard touchdown pass from Mayer to Poyraz, who caught the ball near the 10-yard line and outmaneuvered her pursuers before landing in the end zone.

“I saw that she was open,” Mayer said. “I thought it looked like she was farther [away], but I threw it more harder than further and it got to her. It was a great catch, and then I knew it would be a touchdown if she caught the ball and it was just great.”

Less than a minute later, Poycaz intercepted a pass. It just about sealed the victory with 3:20 remaining, the clock running and great field position.

“The girl was running and the ball was coming to me and I just thought. ‘Man, if I get it, I’m sealing the game, so that’s what I did,” Poycaz said. “I went up and caught the ball and I was really happy that I did because if I hadn’t caught that I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

She literally had about a minute to enjoy the go-ahead score.

“It was just very quick, play after play,” she said. “Honestly, the mindset for sports is just you’ve got to keep going and the game wasn’t over, and I knew it wasn’t over yet. I knew I wanted to win.”

Fremd took possession ahead 18-12 with 2:54 left to play. With under a minute, though, Fremd was facing a fourth-and-goal on the Guilford 7-yard line. The pressure was on, but Mayer had just enough time to elude it before firing a pass up high into the center of the end zone for junior Bella Del Mar who hauled it in.

“Oh my goodness, I was in front of so many people, all these girls, it was insane,” Del Mar said. “I didn’t think I was going to get to that, but I grabbed it.”

Del Mar helped the girls basketball team grab a third place state trophy last winter and wanted a new challenge before returning to hoops. Her catch made it a 12-point game with 52.8 seconds to play.

“I know this isn’t my sport, and all of us this isn’t our main sport, we all just came together,” she said. “We wanted to try something new. We’re all athletes. We have D-I athletes on our team already, and we all just wanted to come together and try a new sport and we became super successful. Last year we were third at state for basketball and it feels so good to come this far now again.”

Todd and senior defensive back Madeline Vonah each had five flag pulls to lead the team. Poyraz had four and Drake had three while Todd also had an interception as Fremd became just the third team to hold Guilford to only two touchdowns.