Clutch Caseys: RBC Flag Football Advances in SCT with Overtime Win

RED BANK – With zero points on the scoreboard and a berth in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals on the line, the Red Bank Catholic flag football team had six minutes to save its season on Tuesday. 

Junior quarterback Lila O’Neal and receivers Heidi Wierman and Lexi Sinatra were up for the challenge. 

O’Neal found Wierman for a game-tying touchdown with 1:30 left in regulation and then hit Sinatra for a 13-yard score in overtime to help the eighth-seeded Caseys pull out a 12-6 win over ninth-seeded Colts Neck in the first round of the SCT at Count Basie Field. 

“I was very nervous, but I’ve played for so many years that I had confidence in my talent, and I just stuck to the basics and stuck to what I know,” O’Neal said. “It was exhilarating. I think that’s the most excited I’ve been all season.” 

RBC (7-2) beat Central Division rival Colts Neck (8-3) for the second time this season and ended the Cougars’ eight-game winning streak to advance to face top-seeded Barnegat (9-0) on the road in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. It was a much different game than the 30-26 shootout RBC won in the season opener against Colts Neck. 

“They’ve done incredible,” O’Neal said about Colts Neck. “They’ve worked really hard and have gotten a lot better than the first time we saw them.” 

The Caseys trailed for almost the entire game on Tuesday, as Colts Neck took a 6-0 lead in the second quarter that it didn’t relinquish until the final minutes. Junior Liv Brown took a pitch from freshman Daryn Heal on a speed option play and raced 24 yards down the sideline with 6:37 left in the half to put the Cougars in front. 

Colts Neck’s defense limited the Caseys to 63 total yards until late in the third quarter when RBC’s offense started to come alive. 

“I think our demeanor, our energy, I feel like we all came together and turned up,” Wierman said. 

The Caseys finally started to move the ball when they drove down to the Cougars’ one-yard line early in the third quarter. A key play was a 21-yard yard catch and run by freshman Joi Lucas, who shined in her first varsity game after stepping in for an injured starter at center. 

“She made some great plays for her first time playing on varsity,” O’Neal said. “She did incredible. I had no idea she could catch that well, and she had some great runs (after the catch).” 

However, a 10-play drive ended in frustration when a penalty backed RBC up from the goal line and then Heal broke up a pass in the end zone on fourth-and-8 to keep Colts Neck up 6-0 with 9:48 left in the game. 

“Everybody was very heated at each other, but we ended up getting through it,” O’Neal said. “We just had to take a breather and take a timeout, and we regrouped after that.” 

The RBC defense stepped up and forced a three-and-out on Colts Neck’s ensuing possession. The Caseys bottled up Heal, the Shore Conference’s leading rusher, holding her to 10 yards on the ground in the game. The Cougars’ run game is their strength with speed option plays on the perimeter and quarterback keepers by freshman Ashley Tiedemann, but RBC limited them to 99 total yards and only 5 total yards after Heal’s second-quarter touchdown. 

“We had some film days, so I think we went in prepared, but when we saw it on the field it took a little getting used to maneuvering around their blocking,” O’Neal said. 

“It’s just a lot of taking two steps back and then cutting up the sideline when needed,” said Sinatra, who also had two pass break-ups in the win. 

RBC got the ball back with 6:24 left in regulation and marched 62 yards in 10 plays to tie the game. Isabelle Palumbo had an 18-yard catch on a play where the Caseys ran a reverse and then flipped it back to O’Neal for a pass to start the drive, and Lucas had a 3-yard catch on fourth down to keep it alive. A 16-yard grab by Wierman put the Caseys on the doorstep, and they scored two plays later when O’Neal found Wierman again for an 11-yard strike to tie the game with 1:30 remaining. 

“That play is like a run across, just like, ‘Heidi go catch it,’ and I’ll be there,” Wierman said.

Heal then broke up the extra-point pass to help send the game into overtime. 

RBC got the ball first and scored on its third play when O’Neal hit a streaking Sinatra for a 12-6 advantage. 

“Lexi is one of our fastest players on the team, and I just had full confidence that she was going to beat her on the outside,” O’Neal said. 

On RBC’s final three drives of the game, O’Neal went 11-for-16 passing for 116 yards and two touchdowns. 

“(Overtime) was very stressful, but I knew we had to put pressure on them because they had been putting the pressure on us the whole game,” Sinatra said. 

RBC’s defense then forced three incompletions on Colts Neck’s four plays in overtime, including one in the end zone that sealed the win. 

“I think this game was a little different because it’s the first game of the playoffs, and I think we were a little on edge today because if we lost it would’ve been the last game of the season,” O’Neal said. “I think that was a key factor.” 

Now they get their crack at Barnegat, which has the Shore Conference’s No. 1 scoring offense at 31.5 points per game. 

“We need to show them we’re not just the underdogs,” Wierman said. 

Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999 and has covered basketball, baseball and seemingly every other Shore Conference sport at some point. 

Email: scottstump25@gmail.com