We Speak Flag / 7v7 Football
Eastmark’s Star Trio Is Chasing the 4A Title That Got Away
Eastmark knows exactly how a championship season is supposed to end, because the Firebirds have already made the trip once — all the way to the Class 4A state championship game.
The core of that team is back, and it might be the most talented trio in Arizona.
Senior wide receiver and defensive back Kinsley McCarty caught 98 passes for 1,272 yards and 20 touchdowns last season, per The Arizona Republic’s season preview, helping lead Eastmark to that 4A title game appearance. Quarterback Paige McCrabb has a 4,191-yard, 45-touchdown passing season on her MaxPreps ledger. And wideout Mikaela Oberstein, who played tackle football as a freshman, gives the Firebirds a third star defenses have to honor.
“Eastmark has three of the best players in the state,” the Republic wrote before the season, and the Firebirds have played like it this fall. Their feed of game galleries shows the same story week after week — including a 35-3 rout of Crismon, their fourth win of the season, and the leaping grab in the photo above from their matchup with St. Mary’s.
The 4A race is never simple in Arizona. Prescott has won 29 games across its first two seasons in the league, Flagstaff and Mingus are perennial contenders, and the playoff bracket rewards nobody. But no team in the field walks in with a returning championship-game core like Eastmark’s.
For McCarty, McCrabb and Oberstein, that is the whole point of the season. The Firebirds did not come back to admire a title game appearance. They came back to finish the job, and the AIA 4A playoffs are where they intend to do it.
Revenge on Senior Night: Hewitt-Trussville Rides a Roller-Coaster Season Into the 6A Playoffs
The Skipps Twins Deliver Alaska’s Title, and Dimond’s Run Ends One Game Short
Marana Makes Its Statement: A 17-0 Shutout of No. 2 Salpointe Catholic
Four Straight Finals, One Missing Trophy: Keiser’s Fall Is All About the Chase
Dream Season Meets Desperation: No. 20 Northwestern Walks Into Autzen Against Reeling Oregon
Surprise of the ACC: No. 14 Wake Forest Hosts Virginia With a Title-Game Path in Sight
No. 12 Ole Miss Must Beat Auburn Without Its Star Running Back to Keep Playoff Hopes Alive
Pride Game in Tallahassee: Clemson and Florida State Meet on Halloween With Seasons on the Line
We Speak Flag / 7v7 Football
Revenge on Senior Night: Hewitt-Trussville Rides a Roller-Coaster Season Into the 6A Playoffs
Few teams in Alabama have lived a season like Hewitt-Trussville’s — and few finished the regular season with a better story.
The Huskies closed their home schedule on Senior Night with a 25-15 win over Oxford, avenging a Week 2 loss to the Yellow Jackets and sending off a six-player senior class the right way. It was the last turn of a roller coaster that never really leveled out.
Hewitt-Trussville’s fall, as chronicled game by game on the team’s own feed, went like this: a 15-6 region win over Thompson in which the Huskies held the Warriors scoreless for the entire second half. A 35-0 road rout of 5A McAdory, done in three quarters, for a fourth straight win. A region win at Hoover so chaotic that, in the team’s words, no one could tell the time or the score because the scoreboard did not work. A 38-19 region-finale loss to No. 9 Prattville — followed immediately by a bounce-back win, because that is what this team does.
The Huskies play in Class 6A, Region 3, the deepest neighborhood in Alabama flag football, alongside unbeaten-in-region Spain Park, Vestavia Hills, Prattville, Hoover and Thompson. Surviving it earned Hewitt-Trussville a first-round date with James Clemens when the AHSAA 6A playoffs open Nov. 2-5.
The photo above — the whole program packed into a team dinner at Walk-On’s — is the other half of the scouting report. The Huskies are close, they are loose, and they have already proven they can beat region heavyweights and answer bad weeks with good ones.
James Clemens gets the next test. After the season Hewitt-Trussville just lived, there is not much the playoffs can show the Huskies that they have not already seen.
The Skipps Twins Deliver Alaska’s Title, and Dimond’s Run Ends One Game ShortMarana Makes Its Statement: A 17-0 Shutout of No. 2 Salpointe CatholicFour Straight Finals, One Missing Trophy: Keiser’s Fall Is All About the Chase
Vestavia Hills Takes a 15-4 Record and a First-Round Bye Into the AHSAA 6A PlayoffsDream Season Meets Desperation: No. 20 Northwestern Walks Into Autzen Against Reeling OregonSurprise of the ACC: No. 14 Wake Forest Hosts Virginia With a Title-Game Path in SightNo. 12 Ole Miss Must Beat Auburn Without Its Star Running Back to Keep Playoff Hopes AlivePride Game in Tallahassee: Clemson and Florida State Meet on Halloween With Seasons on the Line-
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