Cerritos Girls Flag Football Wins Historic Double OT Thriller in Program Debut

The Cerritos High girls flag football team edged Norwalk High 13-12 in double overtime last Saturday in the first game in school history. This is the third season the CIF-Southern Section has had the sport. PHOTO BY LOREN KOPFF.

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X

Somewhere in the future when people look through the annals of Cerritos High athletics, there should be the following question: who scored the game-winning extra point in the first girls flag football game? And if no one answers Kianna Rangel, shame on them.

The junior caught the short three-yard pass from senior quarterback Camille Mangahis to give the Dons a 13-12 double overtime victory over host Norwalk High last Saturday morning in the program debut of the sport that the CIF-Southern Section instituted in 2023.

After a scoreless first overtime, senior Jazmin Jimenez caught a 12-yard pass from freshman Jaylynn McGarrah to give the Lancers a 12-6 lead. Following a three-yard reception from junior Natalie Diaz, Mangahis scampered in from two yards out on third down to tie the contest.

“Obviously, I wanted to come in and get a dub,” said Cerritos first-year head coach Brittney Parker-Goodin. “I think we needed the momentum just to see what they’re capable of because they didn’t know what to really expect. So, having this [win] to go into the season with is going to be incredibly uplifting for them going forward.”

“It wasn’t the outcome that we wanted, but honestly, I think it’s the type of play that we wanted,” said Norwalk head coach Carlos Sandoval. “We were hoping for a lot of dogfights [this season]; we never wanted to play, obviously, landslide [games]. Not to take away from anybody, but we definitely want to be challenged.”

In the first quarter, Cerritos had five plays and gained 10 yards while the Lancers had a dozen plays in a pair of drives, picking up 43 yards and scoring their first touchdown. As the stanza was winding down, sophomore quarterback Leah Estrella ran it in from seven yards out on third down. The pass attempt for the conversion was unsuccessful and the hosts would get two first downs before halftime, both coming in their final drive of the half.

Meanwhile, Cerritos was beginning to gain traction during its second drive of the quarter (third of the game). On fourth and four at its 36-yard line, Rangel picked up just enough for the initial first down in program history, A critical pass interference call on second and 16 gave Cerritos hope at the Norwalk 25-yard line. But the Dons were unable to capitalize on that, and the Lancers ran the final six plays of the half.

Rangel completed four passes in the half for 16 yards and rushed seven times for negative yards while Estrella was 10 of 12 for 34 yards in the half and added another 44 yards on six carries.

“I definitely kind of expected the jitters,” said Parker-Goodin. “We worked really hard to get them some scrimmages and things before to kind of balance that out. But it just comes with the territory of being on a team. We just kept reassuring them that [it’s] one play at a time and that [they] don’t have to worry about those little mistakes; that they can always pick it up, and they did exactly that. Once they saw what they were capable of and were listening to what we were calling on the sidelines, they got the confidence back up and were able to execute some things.”

“For the first half, our girls were more locked in and prepared,” said Sandoval. “We do have a lot of new players this year for our varsity, and we do have a platoon system where our starters from the first half play the majority of the half, and the second shift starts the second half. But I think it was more of the nerves of who had they had to block; who they had to guard. But we just have to go back to the drawing board and remember what our responsibilities are.”

While the Dons had two drives and ran 14 plays in the third quarter for 41 yards, they were beginning to build momentum, especially on the defensive side because Norwalk had one drive, which began at the Cerritos 15-yard line and was stymied on fourth down for a six-yard loss.

Then early in the fourth quarter, Cerritos thought it had a go-ahead touchdown as on fourth down from the two-yard line, sophomore Julia Santos was stopped a yard short when it appeared she had crossed the goal line. The Lancers would go three and out on the ensuing drive and two plays later, Rangel connected with sophomore Analiyah Coneita for a 34-yard touchdown pass with 5:07 left in regulation to tie the contest.

Norwalk then used the combination of 22 yards on three carries from Estrella. 16 yards from senior Natalie Cervantes and a 13-yard reception from senior Nicole Reyes to get to the Cerritos 15-yard line. However, senior Sofia Velasquez-Miranda picked off Estrella with 1:03 left and the game headed to overtime.

“[I was] a little nervous because the girls had not…none of us have experience with overtime with the rules and [we wanted to] make sure we wanted to get those rules locked down,” said Parker-Goodin. “But I was confident in our defense today; we really locked in on defense early on.”

In the first overtime and facing fourth and goal from the three-yard line, Estrella thought she had the go-ahead touchdown near the left pylon. But she came up inches short and to make matters worse, injured herself. Cerritos was unable to do anything on its first possession of overtime.

“It was controversial because I want to say 90 percent of her body was in,” said Sandoval. “Her one ankle was outside; [the referees] called it no touchdown, but it is what it is. We can’t control the outcome of the [decision].”

Cerritos visited Bellflower High this past Monday and fell to the Buccaneers 39-8. The Dons, who also went to Culver City High two days later, will travel to Anaheim High on Monday entertain Culver City on Tuesday in their first home game, then go to Long Beach Jordan High on Wednesday.

Norwalk, which lost to Long Beach Cabrillo High 28-20 in its first ever game last season, bounced back two days later and posted a 12-0 win over Bell Gardens High. The Lancers faced Bell Gardens this past Monday and bounced back with an 18-6 victory. The Lancers will travel to Western High today before entertaining Saddleback High on Monday. Last season, they were 7-6 before losing three straight and six of the final eight games of the season.

“It reminded me a lot of our first game of last season, which was Cabrillo,” said Sandoval of the Cerritos game. “It was a dogfight back and forth and any little thing could have changed the outcome. So, it was exciting; we love winning exciting games.”