Columbia crowned first Section 2 D-I flag football champs

TROY, NY (NEWS10) -- This spring, we saw the first ever flag football season for girls in Section 2. Wednesday night, the section crowned it's first champion in Division-I in a battle of two 12-1 teams: Albany and Columbia.

The Blue Devils rolled from the opening whistle, starting the game with an interception by Anna Nassivera. Bella Satalino found Ava Tran for a touchdown on the ensuing possession, as Columbia jumped out to a 7-0 lead.

After another defensive stop, Columbia's Allison Hutton tallied a rushing touchdown to extend the Blue Devils lead to 14-0. Satalino and Tran linked up one more time before the half, as Columbia took a 20-0 lead into the break.

Tran caught two more touchdowns in the second half, both passes from Nassivera, as Columbia rolled to a 34-12 win. "It means a lot," said head coach Craig Cavotta. "Our kids work really hard. They've been trying since day one. We told them it was a process. Just take it one day at a time. We had small goals because we have a bunch of kids that played a bunch of different sports. Football is the ultimate team sport. So to get all these kids from different sports to come together and play football was going to be tough and they listened to everything that the coaches said and they worked really hard every day."

For a team that had never played the game before, this group grew a ton since the beginning of the season. "We all walked into this first day, 33 of us, we didn't know how to play," said Nassivera. "We didn't know any of the rules. The first practice, I mean, it didn't go great, but we've continued to grow since then and it's a great thing to be a part of."

The Blue Devils will play in Regionals on Saturday at Shenendehowa High School at noon.