Dunwody’s Courtney Craft (on ground) gets one of several Wildcat sacks on Eagle’s Landing quarterback Savanna Salter (4) in a defensive struggle won 2-0 by Dunwoody in the Division 2 girls’ flag football state playoffs. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Defense keyed the Dunwoody Wildcats to a pair of Division 2 girls’ flag football state playoff victories at Dunwoody on Tuesday night and a berth in the Elite 8 on Thursday.
After defeating Salem 20-6 in the first round matchup, Dunwoody (11-3-1) and Eagle’s Landing (8-7), a 13-12 overtime victor against Northside-Warner Robins (5-5) were locked into a defensive struggle that would end with the Wildcats taking a 2-0 win to advance.
With 6:38 to play Dunwoody’s Livi Matulich intercepted an Eagle’s pass and returned it to the Eagle’s Landing 20-yard line. Dunwoody came up two-yards short on a fourth and goal at the 12 pass from Maddie Sacks to Kylie Heinrich.
Eagle’s Landing took over with three minutes to play at its own two-yard line. Lizzie Lee came up with the first of two big plays in the final three minutes as she sacked Eagle’s Landing quarterback Savanna Salter in the endzone for a safety to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead with 2:18 to play.
Eagle’s Landing used its timeouts and its defense held to force Dunwoody to punt. The Eagles took over at their 29 with 30 seconds to play. Salter and Zatraya Holliday hooked up on passes of 23 and nine yards to set up a do or die play from the Dunwoody 19 with four seconds to play.
Salter dropped back to pass and Lee flew into the backfield for another sack as the clock ticked down to 0:00 to seal the win. It was Lee’s third sack of the game as her first stopped Eagle’s Landing’s first drive of the game that had advanced to the Dunwoody 29.
Abby Hughes added a big interception in the first half to give the Wildcats two in the game.
Dunwoody got touchdown passes of 56 yards and 17 yards from quarterback Gracie Puckett to Lily Garrigan to spur the Lady Wildcats to a 20-6 win in their first round game against Salem (5-6).
Dunwoody’s Gracie Puckett looks for receiver Lily Garrigan on what would be a 56-yard touchdown pass play in a 20-6 first round win over Salem. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Puckett engineered a touchdown drive on the opening possession of the game as she completed pass of 14 and 21 yards to Jaida McCord down to the Salem 15. Two plays later Alani Moore took a pitch on the option from Puckett into the end zone for the go-ahead score. The PAT was no good.
Two possessions later Puckett connected with Garrigan for the first of their two touchdown plays. Garrigan made the catch at the 40, faked a defender and raced to the endzone for the 56-yard touchdown play. Hayden Wood ran in the PAT to make it 13-0 heading into halftime.
Jaida McCord returned a punt to the Salem 28 as the Wildcat defense held Salem on the opening possession of the second half. Four plays later Puckett hooked up with Garrigan again as the receiver was wide open in the endzone. Moore ran in the PAT to make it 20-0.
Salem got a late score on a 73-yard touchdown pass with 5:20 to play to make the final of 20-6.
Lindsay Parkes sealed the win with an interception late in the game that allowed Dunwoody to run out the clock.
Dunwoody gets to host its third round game as No. 2 seeded Greenbrier knocked off No. 1 seed Northgate 7-0 to advance to the Elite 8. The Wolfpack (11-3) defeated Westlake 25-19 in four overtimes to advance to the second round matchup against Northgate. The third round game will be played at Dunwoody on Thursday at 5:30 pm.
In other Division 2 play for DeKalb teams, Lakeside fell in a tough 6-0 decision to Woodland-Cartersville, Lithonia fell 20-0 to Rockdale County and Tucker dropped a 20-0 decision to Heritage-Conyers.
In Division 1 action, Columbia fell 20-7 to Mary Persons.
DCSD FLAG FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE
FIRST TWO ROUNDS ARE ON NOV. 30
Class A-4A
St. Vincent’s hosts first two rounds
Mary Persons (11-4) 20, Columbia (8-3) 7
Class 5A-6A
Dunwoody hosts first two rounds
Eagles Landing (8-6) 13, Northside-WR (5-5) 12
Dunwoody (10-3-1) 20, Salem (5-6) 6
Dunwoody (11-3-1) 2, Eagles Landing (8-6) 0
Dunwoody advances to Elite 8
McDonough hosts first two rounds
Woodland, Cartersville (3-3-1) 6, Lakeside (7-5-1) 0
Dodge County hosts first two rounds
Rockdale Co. (12-1) 20, Lithonia (7-7) 0
Heritage-Conyers hosts first two rounds
Heritage (9-1) 20, Tucker (4-12) 0
DCSD FLAG FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE
Division 2 (Class 5A-6A)
Greenbrier (11-3) at Dunwoody (11-3-1), 5:30 pm