Girls Flag Football (14-2 ) won 7-6 in a home game against Northwood High on Sept. 10. Their next game is on Oct. 9 against Woodbridge High at home. 

In the first quarter, the Bulldogs focused on defense, working to contain middle passes to prevent the Timberwolves from gaining an extra point, according to head coach Julie Primero. This helped the Bulldogs maintain a lead that they kept during the first half of the game, according to defensive back and senior Aleena Advani. 

“I’m really proud of our defense for doing those great stops and our offense for finding those open gaps to pull through,” Advani said. 

During the second quarter, the Bulldogs kept up their defense while trying to score another point, and during the third quarter of the game, the Bulldogs’ offense was able to use gaps between the Timberwolves’ offense to secure a quick touchdown. This helped the Bulldogs maintain a one-point lead. 

“Compared to previous games, I think actually [winning the point] was big because recently in our games, we’ve only won by one point, so converting the extra point has really been big for us,” Primero said. 

In the last quarter, the Bulldogs worked on containing the Timberwolves’ receivers, who often catch balls from quarterbacks after snaps, and running backs to keep up their lead until the end of the game. This was the primary strategy used by the defense team in order to prevent points from being scored by the Timberwolves, according to Primero.

An important strategy was maintaining high energy throughout the entire game despite mistakes or bad plays. Shaking those off and focusing on the present helped boost team morale and prevent opposing big plays with defense that helped the Bulldogs secure points. For future games, the Bulldogs are focusing on paying more careful attention to not let the opposing team score touchdowns by further improving their defense and improving their slow starts, according to Primero. 

“We definitely have slow starts every game,” Primero said. “So it takes us time to warm up, [and] that’s the biggest thing that we need to improve on, like coming out ready to play.”