Eastwood tops El Dorado to wins girls' flag football city championship

To the uninitiated unfamiliar with a sport just now hitting the big time, girls flag football might seem like it should be video-game football, a high-scoring, up-and-down shootout with a spinning scoreboard. That's not the way El Paso's best team, the Eastwood Trooper play it. That's not the way they dominated El Dorado 26-0 at the SAC 2 to win the second-ever city championship, a year after they lost to familiar opponents to finish fourth.

More: Americas tops Harmony to win title on celebration day for girls flag football in El Paso The Troopers made the championship game when their star Mariana Macias ran in a late pick-6 to beat Americas 12-6 in the Houston Texans division title game (a de facto semifinal). Then she had two more interceptions (as well as a long touchdown reception) in the championship game. With it, both the Troopers and the Aztecs advance to the inaugural eight-team Girls Flag Football Texas State Championship in Denton June 13-14.

"I told everybody at the beginning of the year we were going to win because of our defense," said Eastwood coach Jaime Hernandez, whose team lost the semifinals to Americas last year, then lost the third-place game to El Dorado. "We had 15 girls returning from last year. We knew with the senior leadership we had with Mari (Macias), Leah (Angelyah Galford) and Maya (Gandara) as our quarterback, we could do it.

" It helps having the best player on the field and that was Macias, who had four interceptions in the two games including the dramatic one late to top Americas in the Houston Texans final. She's a free safety, but at times she looked more like Willie Mays patrolling centerfield. More: Harmony flag football team headed to Dallas Cowboys game to be honored for title "Last year she played corner for us, but we knew she was the best player in the city," Hernandez said.