Rachel Ganz's alert defense helps Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK flag football reach inaugural state final
Plainview-Old Bethpage/JFK's Rachel Ganz, right, reaches for the flag of Columbia's Allison Hutton during a Division 1 semifinal at the NYSPHSAA Flag Football Championships in Cortland, N.Y., Saturday, June 1, 2024. Plainview-Old Bethpage/JFK advanced to the championship game with a 14–0 win over Columbia-II. Credit: Adrian Kraus
CORTLAND — For the first time all game, the Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK defense bent.
But it didn’t break.
Columbia’s Matisen Roy flew behind the Hawks’ defense and was running free for a potential game-tying touchdown catch. But Rachel Ganz never gave up on the play. The junior caught up with Roy and made a diving flag pull at the 16 to save a touchdown.
Facing a fourth-and-goal from the 12-yard line four plays later, Columbia ran a hook and lateral, with Allison Hutton dodging several flag pulls on her the way to the goal line.
She was met by Ganz, who made the stop at the 1-yard line with 11:26 left to keep Columbia off the board in Plainview’s 14-0 win in the Division I semifinals of the inaugural flag football state championships Saturday at Cortland High School.
“Columbia’s coach called a great play and we missed a few flag pulls, but Rachel saved the day,” coach Alec Abramowitz said. “We got scared for a second, but she held up the flag and we knew we got the stop we needed.”
“We watched film on them and we knew that was a possibility,” Ganz said. “I just had to watch the ball, get there in time and trust my flag-pulling abilities.”
Plainview (19-0) will face Scarsdale in the final at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
The Hawks led 7-0 when Ganz made the stop, thanks to a 5-yard touchdown pass from Jen Canarutto to Lara Glasser with 11 seconds left in the first half. It was Plainview’s fourth trip to the red zone in the half.
“Scoring in the red zone has been one of the areas we’ve struggled with throughout the season and you saw that in the first half,” Glasser said. “It was really fulfilling to get on the board before the end of the half.”
After Ganz made an interception with 8:18 left in the second half, Glasser caught a 5-yard curl from Canarutto before juking a defender and taking off down the sideline for a 62-yard touchdown.
“I caught the ball on the outside and saw a girl cut on my inside hip, so I just used the sideline to my advantage,” Glasser said.
Glasser caught 12 passes for 174 yards and two scores from Canarutto, who completed 19 passes for 204 yards.
“Jen has been doing a great job of getting our athletes the ball in space and letting them create those yards after the catch,” Abramowitz said.
Glasser added an interception on the final drive for Columbia (14-2). Gabi Weinstein caught an interception on a pass that was tipped at the line of scrimmage by Emma Heaney with 3:06 left in the game.
Winners of 37 straight games and last year’s regional title, the Hawks aim to become New York’s first state champions.