Colorado flag football has begun with a mini-dynasty.
Mountain Vista, supercharged by the talents of senior quarterback Ariana Akey, beat Legend 48-26 Saturday night at Trailblazer Stadium to win its second straight Class 5A championship.
Flag football has been a sanctioned CHSAA sport for only two years, but in that time, the Golden Eagles have posted a perfect 38-0 record and are ranked No. 8 nationally by MaxPreps. Akey has been a huge reason for that unbeaten run, and was again Saturday night when she ran for five touchdowns and threw for two more.
Last year, she was CHSAA’s player of the year and one of 32 players nationwide nominated for the Maxwell National Flag Football Player of the Year Award. Sports Illustrated named her its national girls’ athlete of the week after the Golden Eagles won their first state title.
“This is amazing,” said Akey, who plans to accept a scholarship to play flag football in college but is still debating where she wants to go. “Last year, a couple of nights after we won the first one, I was nervous thinking about it when I was lying in bed. I was already thinking about it. So, to do it now is such a relief, but I’m just so excited.”
In practices leading up to the championship game, offensive coordinator Garrett Looney told Akey, “Pressure is a privilege.”
“I took that to heart,” Akey said.
Fittingly, the Golden Eagles’ final TD was a long pass from Akey to senior center/linebacker Braelynn Looney, one of the state’s most prolific receivers.
“It’s amazing,” said Braelynn, who’s Garrett Looney’s daughter. “I mean 38-0? Two-peating is harder than winning state. We knew we could be great, but we had to stay humble.”
As for the game and career that Akey produced, Braelynn said: “She’s amazing. She’s humble. She’s probably the most humble person I have ever met. But she locks in, and we feed off her. If she’s locked in, we’re all locked in.”
A frenetic first half ended with the Golden Eagles leading 20-13, but with Legend having sent a message that it was not intimidated by Vista’s gaudy track record.
“Everybody came at us with their A game,” Vista coach Dana Srdoc said. “We talked about it with the girls at the beginning of the season and let them know we were going to have a target on us.
“And tonight’s game was such a great game, so competitive. We knew Legend would bring it, but we were ready.”
Akey, dogged all night by Legend’s pass rushers, used her pure speed to score the game’s first touchdown, sprinting into the end zone from 7 yards out.
Legend quickly answered with its magical connection of senior quarterback Madi Smolen and senior wide receiver Lucy Thompson. Smolen scrambled and threw a high pass into the end zone, where Thompson was smothered by three defenders. But Thompson, who’s headed to Nebraska on a softball scholarship, somehow made a diving, fingertip catch to tie the game with 8:15 left in the first quarter.
Golden Eagles senior wide receiver/safety Kayleigh Besch, who hauled in two interceptions, said that they had a game plan to slow Thompson, who entered the game with 115 receptions for 1,896 yards and 30 touchdowns.
“We watched film on them a good bit, and we could see that they always go to 18 (Thompson),” Besch said. “We had three different plays, where somebody played man-to-man on her while the other three played zone. ‘Ari’ was the one who played her the most, because ‘Ari’ is such a crazy-good athlete. … I thought our plan worked pretty well.”
After Thompson’s spectacular catch, Vista responded immediately, with Akey displaying her fast feed and her accurate, powerful right arm. She scambled out of the pocket and then threw a running, cross-fire pass to freshman Harper Hofmeir for the score and a 13-7 lead.
But back came Legend on the strength of two huge passes by Smolen. First, she hooked up with Tori Curdie for a 35-yard gain, and then she threw a 19-yard TD pass to sophomore Presli Easley. The game was knotted 13-13.
Akey’s second rushing touchdown, a 5-yard sprint just inside the corner of the end zone, put Vista ahead near the end of the second quarter. Legend’s Smolen put up a Hail Mary pass at the end of the half, but it was picked off in the end zone by junior Lauren Culebro.
The Titans finished their season 17-2, with both losses coming at the hands of the Golden Eagles, who beat them 40-13 earlier this season.
