We Speak Flag / 7v7 Football
Perfect and Nearly Untouched: Casa Grande and Kayla Tacker Roll Toward the AIA 5A Playoffs
The most dominant defense in Arizona girls flag football belongs to a team that still kneels together at midfield before it plays.
Casa Grande enters the stretch run of the AIA season at 12-0 and ranked No. 1 in the Class 5A rankings, and the numbers behind the perfection are staggering. Through 12 games, the Cougars’ defense has allowed exactly one touchdown all season, according to The Arizona Republic’s Oct. 27 rankings.
At the center of it is senior Kayla Tacker, who plays both wide receiver and defensive back and has turned takeaways into a personal record book. Tacker owns 56 career interceptions, the Arizona all-time career lead, and she is the first flag football player in state history to pass 50 career picks. She entered the season already holding the record at 47, after piling up 46 touchdown catches and 2,941 receiving yards over the previous two seasons.
She is still adding to both columns. In a recent win over Carl Hayden, Tacker caught five touchdown passes and intercepted another pass on defense, the kind of two-way takeover that has become routine for her.
The Cougars are not a one-player show. Senior quarterback Sarah Mountz, the daughter of head coach Mountz, is one of the top quarterbacks in Arizona, and Casa Grande’s balance is why the Republic and the AIA rankings have kept the Cougars at or near the top of 5A all fall.
The road ahead runs through the defending champions. Gilbert Campo Verde, the reigning 5A title winner, sits at No. 2 in the AIA 5A rankings behind Casa Grande, setting up the possibility of a postseason collision between the undefeated Cougars and the champs.
First, Casa Grande has to finish what it started. Twelve wins, one touchdown allowed, and the most prolific ball hawk Arizona has ever seen — the Cougars are three or four good weeks from turning a perfect regular season into a program-defining playoff run.
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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