By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A first-half touchdown proved to be the difference.
That and a stingy defense.
Eighth-grader Lainey Vargas connected with senior Allie Frederickson on a touchdown, and the Finney defense made score stand as the No. 3 Falcons defeated No. 5 Batavia, 7-0 in the 2025 Section V Class C Flag Football at Monroe Community College.
“I’m so happy for the girls,” said Finney head coach Joe Marchand who is leading the program in its first year in existence. “I’m so proud of them. I can’t put words to it.”
Finney (13-2-1) came into the game with 38 interceptions. The Falcons picked four more passes in Wednesday’s championship game.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JENNIFER LAEMLEIN.
“Throwing the ball on us? You’re rolling the dice when you do that,” Marchand said.
Finney held a Batavia team (9-3-2) that had scored 20-plus in its first two sectional games to its first shutout since the opening game of the season.
“In the beginning of the year, I said to the coaches on Day 1 that our defense is going to win us a title,” said Marchand. “I could see we could play defense right off the bat.”
As part of that defensive effort, Finney also kept Batavia’s option offense in check.
“It was our outside backers taking the running back, and the middle linebacker taking the quarterback. Our safeties came up to support. They all did their job which was great. The girls played great defense.”
Vargas led Frederickson down the middle of the field for the game’s only score.
“We ran that play before against Kearney, and it worked,” Marchand said. “We noticed they were flip-flopping their players on Lucy (Broome), so we thought et’s put them both on the same and hang the ball up there.”
Frederickson pulled down the between a pair of Batavia defenders.
“Our offense is a lot of makeshift. We do stuff on the fly. We ran that play before against Kearney, and it worked. Let’s just chuck it up there and see what happens, and we came down with it.”
Finney advances to regionals to face Section VI champion, Pioneer.
Leave a Reply