Another season, another first, and another Section 1 title for Mamaroneck!
On Saturday morning, Mamaroneck added yet another feather to their caps for the school year, with the Tigers capturing their Class A Flag Football title in just their first year of interscholastic competition, beating rival Scarsdale 13-7 at Lakeland High School.
This is the fourth Section 1 title for Mamaroneck’s team sports this year, as the school earned trophies in football, field hockey and boys basketball in previous seasons.
The Tigers broke a scoreless defensive stalemate on a connection between quarterback Maddie Cashman and Anna Pederson with 1:21 remaining in the first half. They would add to that lead in the second half when running back Margaret Insley found Elsy O’Connor for a 6-yard TD reception. Scarsdale would get on the board when Leah Brown went for a 73-yard score, but that would be it for the Raiders.
Defensive standout Sarah Sherman picked off a pass with just over two minutes to play—her second of the day— to effectively put the game away. Sherman also had two sacks to lead a Tigers’ defense that has been their calling card this year.
Sherman said that bringing home a Section 1 title has been an elusive goal for many of the girls on the team, making this win even sweeter.
“I play soccer and basketball; we’ve had good runs in both, we made it to the County Center this winter, before we got taken out, so we’ve been wanting this,” she said. “We have a lot of players on this team who have been so close to a championship, so I think a lot of us had that drive. I’m just really excited.”
Head coach Anthony Vitti credited his team with its steadfast commitment to improvement which began in the preseason. In fact, the team went 2-3-1 in its first six games before winning 10 of its last 11, including Saturday’s title game.
He also hopes it will serve as an inspiration for younger players who may be thinking about taking up Section 1’s newest sport in the future.
“I hope it just inspires girls to dream big,” said Vitti. “Mamaroneck in general has had a pretty stellar year, and I think that the younger kids growing up in this town will see that with wide eyes and are hoping for their own opportunity.”
The Tigers will move on to the state tournament, where they will play the Section 9 winner on June 2 at Goshen High School. Scarsdale will receive an at-large bid and take on the Section 4 champ on May 27 at Susquehanna Valley High School.
