Whitman dazzles to win inaugural Suffolk girls flag football championship
Whitman’s Gianna Paul finds room to run against Sachem East's Alyssa Bergo on Wednesday, June 1, 2022. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
When Whitman girls flag football coach Ralph Milazzo realized Kate Hoffman had interest in joining the newly-organized team this spring, he recalled memories from years prior that displayed her potential to be the Wildcats’ starting quarterback this season.
“I coached her on the middle school basketball team,” Milazzo said. “We always drew up plays for her to throw long passes because she always had a good arm,” Milazzo said. “So it’s just been a perfect fit for us.”
Wednesday night on her home field was essentially a perfect outing by Hoffman, as she threw five touchdown passes in No. 1 Whitman’s 47-6 victory over No. 2 Sachem East in the inaugural Suffolk girls flag football final.
The game was called with 10:52 remaining because of lightning in the area.
Hoffman said she knew from the very first practices that her team had all the pieces to win a championship. “I knew it from the start,” Hoffman said. “I saw our team and even before the first game I had a strong feeling that we were going to win.”
Hoffman found Mia Stampfel for a 1-yard scoring pass to open the scoring for Whitman (9-0) with 18:01 left. Hoffman then connected with Ashlee Magee for the two-point conversion to give the Wildcats an early 8-0 lead before tossing her an 8-yard TD pass about three minutes later.
In perhaps the most dazzling play of the night, Gianna Paul hauled in a one-handed, 9-yard TD reception on a ball thrown slightly behind her to extend the lead to 21-0. Whitman controlled both sides of the ball and led 34-0 at halftime.
“I usually only get running plays,” Paul said. “I just reacted. That was a lot of fun to score one like that.”
The girls flag football league was created by the Jets and Nike in 2021 and originally had eight New Jersey teams competing before expanding to L.I. this spring.
Whitman will take on Bellmore-Merrick in the Long Island final at the Jets’ training facility in Florham Park, New Jersey at 3:30 p.m. on June 4.
“This is huge, but we want the big one,” Paul said. “It’s so exciting and the fact that we get to experience playing there in high school is insane; it’s really an honor.”
