The Steamboat Springs High School flag football team extended its winning streak to five games Tuesday night with a historic 32-6 win over Regis Groff High School in the team’s first-ever playoff appearance.

“Before the game started we took a moment and just had a memory about being out here for that very first game of our first-ever flag football (season). We wanted to recapture that feeling of being on our home turf, and that there were no expectations and we were just excited to see what was going to happen,” said Connor Payne, the team’s head coach.

“So, we brought that here today — back to that moment, back on our home turf for our first-ever playoff game. I think that magic just kind of ignited our players and let them play, and just to have fun and enjoy the moment,” added Payne.

The girls flag football team, which is in its inaugural season as an official high school sport, took on another first-year program, Regis Groff, which was was ranked 19^th with a 6-4 record in the 4A City League and an 8-7 record overall.

Steamboat had the No. 14 seed in the playoff brackets after finishing the regular season at 7-3 in the 4A Jeffco League and 8-6 overall. The team had won its last four games coming into Tuesday night’s contest.

The Sailors jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in Tuesday’s game at Gardner field behind a 1-yard touchdown run by Mackenzie Gilchrist. Naomi Baumgartner added to the Sailor lead after intercepting a Fusion pass on Regis Groff’s ensuing drive and returning it 30 yards for the touchdown. The Sailors failed to convert the extra point on both scores, making the score 12-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Steamboat kept rolling in the second quarter with Baumgartner connecting with Falls Moody on an 11-yard touchdown pass.  Baumgartner then rushed for the 1-point conversion. Steamboat extended the lead to 25-0 at the end of the quarter with Izzy Hamric hitting Sophie Ciarallo with a 10-yard pass play.

“Our defense has been a strong point for us all along, and these girls are hungry for interceptions, and they know how to pull flags,” Payne said of the team’s defensive effort that held the Regis Groff offense in check the first half. “I also can’t forget to mention that our sideline wins games for us with their energy — them being here and being so invested and such a powerful and a loud voice on the sideline, they are consistently encouraging our players on the field to be their best selves.”

Regis Groff’s only touchdown of the game came in the third quarter when Annai Soria connected with teammate Maleiah Smith-Ramos, cutting the deficit to 25-6. However, the comeback stalled there, and Steamboat added another touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 3-yard pass from Hamric to Moody. Hamric completed a pass to Julia Sturges to secure the Sailors 32-6 first-ever playoff victory.

Steamboat advances to face No. 3 Pomona (14-1) at 2:15 p.m. Saturday in the next round of the class 4A playoffs, taking place at the North Area Athletic Complex, at 19500 W. 64th Parkway in Arvada. The winner of that game will face either Manual or George Washington in the quarterfinals, which will be played at 6:15 p.m. that same day, at the same location.

“At the beginning of the season we weren’t really sure if we were even going to score a touchdown this year, then we won our first two games and we came out as hard as we possibly could and we were like, ‘Wait a minute, this team could actually go somewhere,'” Baumgartner said. “We didn’t have any expectations for ourselves at first, but after those first two games, we expected to win, we expect to play well and we expect to play hard. We continued being humble and hungry throughout the rest of the season, and that’s how we got here.”