PSAL girls’ flag football: Here’s how we ranked the top performers of the week

By Jerry Lee/Special to the Advance

The first week of the repurposed and redefined PSAL flag football season is in the books. And, while each team played at least one game (Tottenville had two) and, despite most of the five teams missing key players, the action showed there are still a lot of talented young ladies on the gridiron. And a number of them made the short list of the first Players of the Week listing.

The Advance/SiLive.com ranked the top five performers from last week in descending order. Scroll down to check out these terrific first-week performances and check back every Monday for the previous week’s top PSAL flag football performances.

Honorable mentions

CSI/McCown’s Rolla Khass had four tackles, three for losses and a sack vs. New Dorp; Susan Wagner’s defensive stalwarts Jaice Dorsey (4 tackles, 5 sacks) and Amina Muratovic (9 tackles) vs. Tottenville; and, Port Richmond’s Fiqrete Marke (5 tackles, 2 for losses, 2 sacks) in loss to Tottenville.

5. Julia Fratto, CSI/McCown — The sophomore had an outstanding debut in the Dragons’ surprising 7-0 win over New Dorp. The wide receiver hauled in three passes from quarterback Gabrielle Greeley for 70 yards and the game’s lone TD. She also had a pair of big interceptions on defense.

4. Julianna DiMarzio, Tottenville — The junior shined in the Pirates’ 1-1 week. In the opening loss to SW, the quarterback completed 24 of 43 passes for 113 yards and one TD. She followed that up with an 11-for-17 performance against PR for 145 yards and four touchdowns.

3. Olivia Rijo, Susan Wagner — The impressive freshman exploded on the scene with two TDs, one for 30 yards on the first play of the Falcons’ 19-6 win over Tottenville. In all, Rijo had three catches for 76 yards (the second TD was for 20 yards) and she also picked off a pair of passes and had three tackles from her spot in the secondary.

2. Francesca Cusenza, Tottenville — The talented receiver opened with a 9-catch, 38-yard, one-TD offensive outing in the Pirates loss to two-time defending city champion Susan Wagner. She also had three tackles, two for losses and a pair of sacks as a linebacker. Then, in a 26-0 whitewashing of Port Richmond, the senior had three catches — for TDs of 40, 30 and 25 yards — and also chipped in with three sacks.

1. Julia Catella, Susan Wagner — It may have been only one game but the Falcon senior did it all for head coach Joseph Pasquale against a solid Tottenville team. The versatile QB was 12 for 23 for 158 yards and three touchdowns and she rushed for 33 yards on 5 rushes. Catella hardly let up on defense as she amassed 10 tackles as a linebacker.