MOULTRIE — The 2023 Colquitt County flag football season came to an emotional end Tuesday night when the Lady Packers were knocked out of the state playoff tournament in the second round.
“There will never be a first time in this flag football program again,” said head coach Kirk Woodall as he addressed the team after the game that ended their season. “In the first season you won region championship and got to host games in the playoffs. That is something to be extremely proud of.”
The Lady Packers ended their inaugural season 11-1-1 with eight shutouts, and, both of their playoff matches were hosted with the hometown advantage of Mack Tharpe Stadium.
“Girls in this community will play flag football because of you,” said Woodall, still addressing the team. “You have built excitement and put this weight behind the program because of what you have accomplished this year.”
In round one of the playoffs, the Lady Packers faced the Centennial Knights — Area 4’s No. 4 team — defeating them 24-0.
It was during their game against the McEachern Indians — a team with several years of experience that competes year round and finished second seed from Area 2 — where the Lady Packers experienced their first loss. The final score of 27-0.
“It’s never fun when a season ends,” said Woodall. “And, when it end like this it’s challenging to look at all the amazing positives; however, we are gong to use this to our advantage.”
Though the Lady Packers are unable to continue fighting for that state title this season, they didn’t go down without a fight.
The initial match of the tournament, fought against the Knights, took a minute to get going, but in the second quarter the Lady Packers were the first to score.
With 5 minutes 20 seconds left before halftime, the play was to have Caylnn Singletary pass the ball to Jamya Moore; however, things didn’t go as planned. It looked as if the play would result in a fumble.
Before that happened, though, Amareyia Knighton plucked the falling ball from the air and ran it into the end zone for the first Lady Packer touchdown of the playoffs.
The Lady Packers would have three more touchdowns before the completion of the game; two being the direct result of interceptions snatched by Amareyia Knighton.
The first was one where Knighton immediately turned and ran the 11 yards for the touchdown.
In the other instance where her interception resulted in a touchdown, it was the play directly where the points were scored. Mashayla Davis passed a 22-yard ball to D’Zeriyah Polite, who grabbed it with defenders hot on her tail.
The final touchdown was run in from 11 yards by Nyleigha Knighton with less than 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
On defense, the Lady Packers were accomplished in shutting down the Indians’ offense.
In addition to Amareyia, there were three athletes who had interceptions: Darnasia Slaughter, Polite and Bender.
Defensively, the Lady Packers were stopping the Indians at every opportunity.
Amareyia Knighton had the most flag pulls at seven, followed by Polite with four.
Getting two apiece were Melissa Breedlove, Singletary and Bender. Montana Tatum had one.
In the second round of playoffs when they faced the Indians, the Lady Packers, though they didn’t score any points, preformed exquisitely.
Moore played a plethora of positions during this match, and successfully managed three flag pulls — one stopping what would have been a guaranteed breakaway had she missed — two blocked passes and two interceptions.
Tying Moore for the most flag pulls against the Indians was Amareyia Knighton.
Bender, Polite and Maris Hopper each had two tackles a piece, one of Hopper’s being a diving pull which also halted a breakaway.
Polite also picked a successful interception and managed to gain some yardage for the Lady Packers when she caught the ball with two defenders surrounding her.
Also having to fight defenders was Singletary, who managed to multitask as she jumped for the ball, caught it, and avoided those nipping at her heels, completing a difficult catch for her team.
“This team is the foundation of a program that can only grow from here,” said Woodall to the Lady Packers. “You have set the bar and will all be forever etched into this program as first flag football team in Colquitt County.”
The 2023 roster for the inaugural season:
Seniors: D’Zeriyah Polite, Ava Brooks, Carli Pearson, Messiah Bender, Dalivia McBride, Ki’Myra Crawford, Nyleigha Knighton, Jamya Moore, Maris Hopper and Ta’Lisa Edwards.
Juniors: Ta’Meria Williams, Caylnn Singletary, Sarah Cooper, Amareyia Knighton, Mashayla Davis, Emily Holweger, Melissa Breedlove, Ariana Daniels, Darnasia Slaughter and Montana Tatum.
Sophomores: Candelaria Tercero, Ali’sia Johnson and Jaelyn Wier.
Freshmen: Ta’ayona Singletary, Dayln Monk, Demetri Kinsey and manager Makaylan Henderson.
Scholarship signing are currently being scheduled for several of the senior athletes, who will continue the sport at a collegiate level.