Plus, scores from around the second round of the flag football playoffs
The Hart flag football program has already made history when the program won its first-ever playoff game in the first round.
But after a 20-18 loss at Hart High School on Saturday to the Chaminade Eagles, the Hawks’ historic playoff run came to an end.
“Chaminade is a great team. And in the playoffs, you’re going to play a lot of good teams,” Hart coach Josh Masmela said. “We felt like we had a good game plan. We didn’t execute it, but, you know, playing against a good team, we have to execute the small things.”
Offensively, it wasn’t the afternoon the Hawks (17-10, 10-2) hoped for.
Despite the offense scoring 18 first-half points, the Hawks were stopped from crossing the goal line in the second half.
And in the second half’s opening play, Chaminade’s (18-6, 10-3) Kaitlyn Nelson picked off Hart’s Shelbie Ratzlaff and returned it for a pick-six.
The pick-six winded up being Chaminade’s game-winning play as the Eagles took a 20-18 lead and didn’t surrender it.
“Chaminade adjusted, we tried our best, but we just couldn’t overcome some mistakes. And we couldn’t capitalize on a few things,” Masmela said.
And although the Hawks fought to the very end, when Hart’s offense tried a Hail Mary that resulted in an incompletion, Masmela saw heart and grit that left him proud.
“This is one of those things where we graduated 16 seniors last year. A lot of people wrote us off thinking this is a rebuild year, but I think we proved people wrong,” Masmela said. “We’re talented and we’re going to have 90% of our team coming back. We’ll be back.”
With the loss, Hart’s 2026 season is over. And although the team losing in the playoffs can be difficult to accept, Hart accomplished historic strides for its program.
With a third-consecutive Foothill League title and first-ever playoff win, Masmela is seeing the growth of his program year in and year out.
The third-year head coach, who oversaw the program’s creation and growth, is eager to see next year’s team grow and exceed the standard this season’s team set.
“We’ll go back, watch some film and show our players, if you fix these mistakes, we could’ve won that game,” he said. “’I’m glad that we’re returning a lot of these players … our girls have always learned from our mistakes, and I don’t count on them to make another mistake twice.”
Here’s the other local score from the second round of the flag football playoffs:
Valencia 33, Lawndale 0: For the first time in Valencia flag football program history, the Vikings are in the quarterfinals following a second-round shutout road win over Lawndale in the Division 3 flag football playoffs.
With the win, the Vikings return to Valencia High School on Tuesday for the quarterfinals and play host to the Compton Tarbabes, who defeated the Patroit Warriors of Jurupa Valley in the second round.
Tuesday’s matchup between the Tarbabes and Vikings is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Valencia High School.
