Newton debuts inaugural girls’ flag football team

MCDONOUGH, Ga. — The first girls’ flag football team in Newton High School history made its debut over the weekend.

First-year head coach Chris Ray was ecstatic for the opportunity to field Newton’s inaugural team in the GHSA-sanctioned sport.

“I get the excitement from the kids. The girls are excited to be out here. They’re excited to play football,” Ray said. “I just love to be around that part of the game.”

The Lady Rams traveled to Rockdale County on Saturday morning for a pair of games at Heritage High School. After dropping the season opener against defending state runner-up Heritage, they bounced back with a dominant victory over Salem.

On Monday evening, Newton returned to action as the club traveled to Ola High School for a doubleheader against Ola and Mary Persons.

The first game of the night saw the Lady Rams play spoiler by crashing the Lady Mustangs’ senior night with a 19-0 victory. A pair of rushing touchdowns in the first half afforded a comfortable lead while the defense forced a flurry of turnovers to keep Ola off-balance.

The Lady Rams continued to lock down defensively in the second half, scoring a touchdown as time expired to place the proverbial cherry on top of their second straight win.

The nightcap didn’t go Newton’s way.

After giving up a pair of touchdowns midway through in the first half, the Lady Rams were never able to fully recover as they suffered a 22-0 loss to Mary Persons.

“We’re getting better every day,” Ray said. “Our first games were Saturday, and it’s only Monday, but I can already see us getting better. We’re improving every day and that’s the goal. We’ll come back to practice [Tuesday] and work on some things to get better for the weekend.”

The Lady Rams will travel to Morgan County on Saturday, Nov. 14, for a game at 10 a.m.