Girls’ flag football: building momentum for a big season

Ava Gonzalez / Contributer

Coach Ramsey Lambert coaches girls through their next play at their Samo homegame to lead them into a succsessful win.

For the second year in a row, the girls’ Samo varsity flag football team ended the season strong after winning the Ocean League Championship and qualifying for the CIF playoffs. The team plans to carry on the momentum from last year and stay focused on the goal of winning the league again.   

Currently, the team has an overall record of 7-5-1. Four of those games were successful league matches, making their official league record a victorious 4-0. Andie Ernst (’28) expresses the impact of their successful plays on the field and growing team bond outside of it. 

“The league is going great, we’re 4-0 and we’ve had three shutouts,” Ernst said. “Our plays are really effective, we work really hard every day, and we can see the work paying off in our games, whether that's on the scoreboard or just our team bond.”

In the girls’ flag most recent game on Thursday, Sep. 25th, against Hawthorne High School, Samo dominated the field, winning 41-0. Quarterback Belle Walker (’28) scored the first touchdown and later made many throws, giving Samo a 27-0 halftime lead. The team’s effort and teamwork helped them finish the game with a shutout, helping pave the way to the league playoffs.     

Girls’ flag football coach, Ramsey Lambert, describes the difficult beginning of the season, but is confident in the fact that the team will overcome their obstacles and become league champions yet again. 

“Everyone's uplifting,” Lambert said. “We're encouraging, we're positive and we need to get better every single day. We struggled in the beginning last year, but our girls stayed focused on the prize and the goal of what we wanted to accomplish by the end of the year, and we slowly just got better every single week.”

Team Captain Chloe Sanders (’26) is excited to see how the flag football team will do this season and has no doubt that the team will again secure the league win this year. Sanders thinks the team will have a slow start like last year, then soar through the rest of the games, all the way to league playoffs. 

“We haven't had a lot of time to practice and we've gone straight into games,” Sanders said. “So that's been something that we've been getting used to, but I think we've been doing a lot better as the season continues and I'm excited to see where we go from here.”

With lots of championship experience and a group of upperclassmen core leaders, the girls’ Samo flag football team aims to defend their Ocean League title and also make it to CIF finals. Their focus is to do their best and stay enthusiastic, improving as the season progresses, bringing home the win for Samo.