Willoughby South's ground game shines on Friday night, Nejak twins stand out

Willoughby's Cara Nejak spins away from Eastlake defender. (Photo: Chuck Cordes/Ohsfbmedia.com)

WILLOUGHBY, Ohio — On a rainy Friday night, the Willoughby girls' flag football team easily shut out Richmond Heights (32-0), Eastlake North (32-0), and Cornerstone Christian (30-0) with a tough run game and a short passing game.

All three wins would end by mercy rule. This team is as good as it gets, considering there are no senior players on the roster.

"Obviously, with the rain, we couldn't throw much, so our run game was really good," said quarterback Lindsay Nejak after throwing three touchdowns in a win over Eastlake North.

In the first half of the game against Eastlake, the offense was slow to get going, partly because the ball was slippery. Quarterback Autumn White would begin a drive, but then threw an interception to Olivia Pennington, which led to a touchdown by Lindsay Nejak to her twin sister, Cara Nejak, making the score 6-0 after they failed the 2-point conversion.

Olivia Pennington catches a touchdown pass thrown by Lindsey Nejak against Eastlake North. (Photo: Chuck Cordes/Ohsfbmedia.com)

Lindsey Nejak kept throwing the ball effectively, connecting with Tia Jackson for another touchdown pass, making the score 12-0 once more after another unsuccessful 2-point conversion.

South's defense would prove to be too much as Olivia Pennington would grab another interception and score on the ensuing possession after catching a wide throw by Lindsey Nejak in the corner of the endzone to go up 18-0. "I think defense was definitely big today, knowing that we couldn't throw the ball, we had to make plays on defense," said Pennington.

They would go into the half leading 18-0.

To open up the second half, the run game would come into play, and the Eastlake offense just could not get going on the ground or in the air.

Freshman Tia Jackson would score on a rushing play to open up the scoring in the second half, taking the lead to 26-0 after a successful 2-point conversion. 

The Rebels' defense would come up with another interception and score, and a final rushing score by Cara Nejak would end the game under the mercy rule when a team leads by 30 points. 

VS. Cornerstone Christian 

In the Rebels' third game of the night, they kept their strong performance going. This time, Addy Matraino athletics showed, scoring two rushing touchdowns that helped them take an early 16-0 lead.

Tia Jackson attempts to catch a low thrown ball by Lindsey Nejak. (Photo: Chuck Cordes/Ohsfbmedia.com)

Cornerstone's offense struggled to make plays as they could not put plays together to get the ball moving for most of the game. 

"We ran the ball well, which worked in our favor," said Matriano.

Throwing an interception to Cara Nejak, the potent offense would take over with Lindsey Nejak throwing two touchdowns to Olivia Pennington to cap off the night undefeated for the day.

The Rebels' next game will be against Garfield Heights at Warrensville Heights High School on Sunday, April 12.