In a highly anticipated duel of the Southland’s top quarterbacks, Makena Cook threw three touchdown passes to keep the Orange Lutheran flag football team unbeaten with a 20-13 victory over Trinity League rival Santa Margarita on Tuesday night.
Cook completed nine of 11 throws in the first half, including touchdowns of 21 and 53 yards to receiver Julia Oberholtzer — the second on a slant over the middle to put the Lancers (18-0, 2-0) up 13-7 with just over two minutes left before intermission.
“Makena and I have practiced that play over and over and we were locked in tonight,” said Oberholtzer, who also plays lacrosse. “I was getting open, she was finding me.”
Cook and the offense won the game, but the Lancers’ defense saved it by picking off three passes by Santa Margarita quarterback Madi Lam, the last by cornerback Josie Anderson in the end zone for a touchback with 33 seconds left.
“It was a stressful game on defense,” Anderson said. “I was nervous because I knew how good Santa Margarita was. On that final play I saw both their inside and outside receivers go long so I knew I had to play in the middle. The throw wasn’t as much of a line drive as it could’ve been, I broke on the ball and it was perfect timing.”
Cook connected on five of six passes on Orange Lutheran’s first drive of the second half and after a five-yard scoring toss she found Brooklyn Vanderkallen for a crucial one-point conversion to give the Lancers a seven-point lead with 19 minutes left.
The Eagles (11-3, 1-1) gained two first downs on the ensuing drive before Anderson intercepted an underthrown ball at the one-yard line.
Lam completed four straight passes to receiver Mackenzie Young and two more to Megan Zimmerman to move the ball to the Orange Lutheran five-yard line, but linebacker AJ Hendrix intercepted a pass at the goal line to keep the Lancers, ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section and state rankings, ahead with 4:50 remaining.
Orange Lutheran went for it on fourth and three at its own 37 with 1:16 left to ice the game, but Cook got pressured and Young intercepted a pass and returned it to the Lancers’ 26. Lam ran for six yards on the Eagles’ first play, setting up Anderson’s game-sealing takeaway.
Lam found Fiona Agius over the middle on fourth and goal from the 10 to put Santa Margarita on top 7-0 and scrambled to her right to throw a dart to Avery Finneran in the corner of the end zone from five yards out to make it 13-13 with four seconds left in the first half.
“Both sides played really well and we’ll face them again at home so hopefully we can win that one,” Young said. “Madi is really good on her feet, she can extend plays and when she came to us she took the time to get to know all of her receivers.”
As a sophomore sensation at Esperanza last fall, Lam handed Cook and the Lancers an overtime defeat in their final contest — a loss that has fueled Orange Lutheran’s bid for perfection this season. Lam transferred to Santa Margarita on Aug. 20 and made her debut in the Eagles’ fifth game Sept. 16 versus Tesoro. In her first seven games at her new school she passed for 26 touchdowns with only one interception, however on Saturday, Santa Margarita suffered back-to-back losses to Corona del Mar and Huntington Beach at the El Toro Tournament to drop to No. 8 in the section and 10th in California.
Santa Margarita hosts JSerra on Thursday; Orange Lutheran travels to Mater Dei.
“Our flag-pulling tonight wasn’t great but I was proud of the way the girls stepped up when they needed to,” Orange Lutheran coach Kristen Sherman said. “It was bend but don’t break. Our league has greatly improved this year; that’s a good team with a good quarterback and they made us better.”
