By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
@tortreports on Instagram
PHILADELPHIA — When playing youth flag football, Milana Riccardi was always a wide receiver. However, with Williamstown High in need of a quarterback entering her rookie year, she didn’t hesitate to step up and take control of the position.
Just two months since her first varsity snap, Riccardi accounted for three touchdowns — two through the air and one on the ground — as second-seeded Williamstown earned a 20-0 victory over No. 9 Pleasantville in the West Jersey Football League championship at the Eagles’ Jefferson Health Training Complex on Monday.
“It was great, it was such an accomplishment,” Riccardi said of the historic victory. “This team worked so hard to get here, so it’s great. I played wide receiver growing up. I love it; (playing quarterback) is definitely different, but I really enjoy it now.”
The freshman phenom took South Jersey by storm this spring, passing for 1,511 yards and 24 touchdowns while accounting for 1,350 yards and 23 scores on the ground, leading the Braves to a 16-1 record. Williamstown ended its season on a six-game winning streak. The Braves’ only loss came against Kingsway, 7-6, on April 23.
Riccardi played basketball in the winter under coach Jaime Land, who also is the Braves’ flag football coach. Last spring, Land directed Williamstown to an 11-3 record and a WJFL semifinals appearance in just the program’s second season. The Braves fell to eventual champion Mastery Camden, 13-6.
As for the basketball program, Land just wrapped up her seventh season at the helm and recently notched her 100th career win. Despite that milestone, it was otherwise an off year as the rebuilding Braves finished with a 5-17 record.
“Based on last year’s basketball season, when we only had a couple wins, I think I needed this. I was proud to do this with Milana,” Land said. “I give Milana a lot of credit. She came as a freshman and never played quarterback, and I think she proved herself to everyone.
“I think she had a lot of pressure — even in basketball we had her as the starting point guard — and she gave it her all. The fact that she came in this flag football season and excelled, I was proud of her that she got to feel what it was like to be a part of a winning team.”
Added Riccardi, “I feel like she deserves that as a coach, too. Especially after that basketball season, winning and doing this well in flag (football) is great. I’m really happy for her, too.”
Williamstown scored its first points of the game on Riccardi’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Harper Carney in the opening quarter. Looking to extend the lead in the second quarter, Riccardi scored on a 4-yard keeper on 4th-and-goal to take a 13-0 lead into intermission. Riccardi found Carney for a 16-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to seal the win for the Braves.
“I’m just so proud of the girls,” Land said. “I think we’ve worked really hard from Day One, and the experience and togetherness we had, we really just worked together and proved that we are the best team.”
While the Braves’ offensive was buzzing, their defensive scheme truly stood out. It was the fifth time the Braves shut out a team this spring. Cali Iacovelli had an interception, Kendall Hand recorded a sack, and the league’s leader in sacks performed on the biggest stage as Shayna Demarest added three more to end her season with 52.
The NJSIAA officially approved flag football to be a sanctioned sport earlier this month. Next year there will be a sanctioned state tournament. It’s still unclear how the classifications will play out and if there will still be a WJFL tournament hosted by the Eagles.
What is clear, however, is that Williamstown will be back and fully prepared to defend its title. The Braves only graduate four seniors next month.
“I’m excited, but I’m also scared. Not scared, but I feel like the competition is just going to get bigger around the schools that get programs. It’s going to make my job harder, but we’ll be good,” Land said. “I love this game. I never thought in a million years that I would be coaching flag football, but I can’t imagine not coaching it right now. I’m learning and feeling more confident now calling plays than I did last year. I learned what it takes to build a winning program.”
