BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - William Woods University (0-1, 0-1 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference) made history, playing its first-ever women's flag football - one of, if not the fastest-growing sport in the United States - game, falling 39-0 to Baker University (1-3, 1-0) Thursday at Liston Stadium.
"Hopefully, we've shook some rust off," William Woods flag football coach
Joe Schlager said. "There was a lot of potential left out there tonight, and we'll go back to the drawing board and prepare for the next game against another very talented, experienced team. All the credit to Baker for putting together four quarters of good football. They took it to us, and we fell short. Onto the next."
William Woods' defense did its job on Baker's first offensive possession, keeping the Wildcats off the scoreboard as they had a six-play, 41-yard drive that spanned 6:00.
Addie Chilek made back-to-back tackles on the first two plays. Following that, it was first-and-15 BU from WWU's 35-yard line, and
Evonne Bruestle, recording the Owls' first tackle for loss, stuffed the Wildcats for a 3-yard loss. Baker failed to get a first down as the WWU opened its first drive from its own 25-yard line.
The Owls had a three-and-out and brought out punter
Madi Jones on fourth-and-25 from WWU's 15-yard line. Jones booted the football 40 yards and downed at the Wildcats' 25-yard line.
Chilek posted three more tackles on Baker's second possession, giving her an impressive five through one quarter. And Natalia Hernandez and
Sam Menard tallied their first tackle for the Owls. Using eight plays and going 55 yards in 4:00, the Wildcats put their first points on the board and took the lead for good on a 1-yard touchdown pass with 11:57 to go in the second quarter.
The Woods' quarterback
Makenzie Hicks completed two straight passes on its second drive to Hernandez and Bruestle, 2 and 5 yards, respectively. Hick's furthest lob of the game was a 22-yard completion to Chilek with 1:21 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Chilek shined on both sides for the Owls, catching five passes for 46 yards and notching a team-high nine tackles and an interception. Hicks went 16-32 through the air for 119 yards, and Jones was the signal-caller's top target with seven receptions for 47 yards.Â
Overall, William Woods totaled 116 yards of offense (125 passing and -9 rushing), intercepted one Wildcats' pass and had two penalties for 17 yards. Baker had 312 yards of offense (189 passing and 123 rushing), three interceptions and two penalties for 10 yards.
The Owls face Kansas Wesleyan University (2-1, 0-0) on the second game of their three-game KCAC Kansas road trip at 1 p.m. Sunday at JRI Stadium (Graves Family Sports Complex) in Salina.
