The Tracy High girls flag football team continued showing their improvement on both sides of the ball when they took down the Millennium High Falcons 24-6 in a Tri-City Athletic League (TCAL) clash on Tuesday evening at Millennium High.
With all of the programs being thrown into the fire on what was a very quick turnaround between the sport officially being announced and teams being formed, the Bulldogs turned in a near complete performance to come from behind and outscore their local rivals.
The visitors looked organized and disciplined defensively and comfortable with the offensive playbook as junior quarterback ReAnna Zuniga sliced and diced the Falcons’ defense en route to throwing four passing touchdowns in the win.
Formerly of the Tracy Buccaneers some years ago, Zuniga explained how the transition into becoming the ‘Dogs’ QB has been relatively smooth. A softball standout in the spring, slinging the ball around is not unfamiliar to her.
Zuniga connected with three different receivers against Millennium to lead her team to a comprehensive win – their fourth from the last five games and third straight in TCAL (4-2).
“It was a really good performance,” she told the Tracy Press afterwards. “We worked as a team really well and it was a fun win. I felt really confident after our first drive, how we came out, and we just kept going up from there.”
Playing defense on the first drive of the game, the Bulldogs went behind early on after a very impressive opening by the Falcons.
The hosts took a 6-0 lead thanks to an 18-yard dime from senior quarterback Jocelyn Hernandez which found freshman receiver Jael Bernard wide open on the right side of the end zone for an easy catch.
However, since that moment, the visitors’ defense tightened the screw and Zuniga and co. got the Bulldogs right back into it on their premiere drive of the game, much to the delight of co-head coach David Brown.
“One of our areas of emphasis this week was to come out playing hard, fast, and aggressive while trying to clean some things up and overall, I think we did that,” he said. “We knew that Millennium have some really good athletes, but we had a game plan on defense, and we executed it really well. Offensively, we played well but we still have a lot more room to improve.”
Before the Tracy defense got their chance to shine, Zuniga brought the ‘Dogs level when she found senior receiver Aliya Tipton with a high throw for a tough end zone catch in traffic to make it 6-6.
The visitors made it two scores on two drives moments later after the Falcons were forced to turn the ball over on downs around midfield.
From there, Zuniga immediately found Tipton again with a 25-yard sidearm throw to get right back inside the hosts’ five. She then connected with junior center Adriana Easley for the score – Easley’s first of two receiving TDs.
The Bulldogs somehow managed to extend their lead to two possessions inside the first half two-minute warning – even though the Falcons were on offense to begin with.
With the clock ticking, Tracy forced another turnover on downs after Millennium failed to convert on 4th and short. The ‘Dogs offense trotted back out with an increased sense of urgency, and it paid off almost immediately.
Zuniga was once again orchestrating everything from under center as she found junior receiver Bayli Brown with a 25-yard pass for a great catch down the middle to get into the red zone. On the next play, Zuniga went short to sophomore running back Izabella Gutierrez and the latter did the rest on a quick catch and carry to get into the end zone.
It was 18-6 Tracy at the half and co-head coach Chris Myers was pleased with the way his team responded to starting the game on the backfoot.
“We preached to the team before the game, even if you give up a big play, let’s just have a short memory and play the next play that’s in front of us,” he said. “The girls did that. We controlled what we could control, put in the effort, and worked our tails off.”
Myers also gave a special mention to junior Kaitlyn Terry who did an outstanding job pressuring Hernandez in the Falcons’ passing zones.
The second half was a lot cagier with both defenses neutralizing the offenses successfully. The Falcons’ defense made some big stops to remain within striking distance, but they could not capitalize on the other end and eventually got punished.
An untimely penalty on Hernandez midway through the half – as the Falcons gained first down yardage – gave the ball back to the visitors and Tracy did not need another invitation to put the game on ice.
Zuniga found Brown on a quick slant route for a 10-yard gain to get things rolling. The ‘Dogs QB then kept the ball to herself on a designed run play to get to the 1-yard line before finding Easley with a clever under-arm flip toss right after the snap to make it 24-6.
In a late attempt to grab a consolation score, Hernandez was linking up well with seniors Melia Ritchie and Alicia Robinson to move the chains. However, what looked like a surefire touchdown pass to wide open senior Mia Hernandez in the middle of the end zone was batted away by a terrific recovery swat from Brown to put the game away.
With the win, Tracy currently sits 4th in the TCAL standings all while having played two less games than Tokay and Lodi (both 6-2) above them. The Falcons dropped to 3-5 with the loss and are 5th after having their two-game win streak snapped.
