Shore Regional and Holmdel Show Potential of Girls Flag Football

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Mark Costantino is doing double duty coaching the boys football program in the fall and the girls flag football team in the spring.
Mark Costantino is doing double duty coaching the boys football program in the fall and the girls flag football team in the spring. Photo by Rich Chrampanis

By Rich Chrampanis

WEST LONG BRANCH – It’s still just a club sport, but there’s no denying the growth and potential of girls flag football. When Shore Regional hosted Holmdel May 5 in West Long Branch, the top two teams in the Shore Conference showed the same intensity and excitement of any varsity rivalry game.

With a couple of hundred fans in the stands, the Blue Devils and Hornets went back and forth in a game that saw some incredible individual plays. Rylee Drahos caught four touchdown passes from Julia Iannuzzelli and added two interceptions in Shore’s 28-19 win. The Blue Devils won the inaugural Shore flag football title in 2021 and are the top team at the midway point of the season.

The common thread for these two teams was high-level athletes who had success for their school in varsity sports. Holmdel’s flag football roster is littered with members of the Hornets 2021 state championship soccer team while Shore features its top basketball player –Drahos- along with other Blue Devil athletes from a variety of sports.

Iannuzzelli carted from the softball field to the football field just in time to make the start of the flag football showdown. She had a hit and a run scored in a loss to Holmdel on the diamond and had even better statistics in her second game of the day. The Shore quarterback threw a perfect pass to the end zone to hit Drahos in stride for a 24-yard touchdown to give the Blue Devils a quick 6-0 lead. Holmdel answered with a fantastic 40-yard touchdown run by Adrianna Morales who sprinted to the edge and eluded defenders on the way to a tying score.

These two consecutive plays showed that flag football is much more than a mere club sport. Shore varsity boys football coach Mark Costantino has clearly embraced the girls game in the spring. He made adjustments to keep Morales from doing more damage in the running game and forced Holmdel to make passing the priority.

On the final play of the first half, Holmdel quarterback Michelle Steele threw a perfect pass over tight coverage into the arms of Julia Saporito who fell into the end zone following a 21-yard touchdown scoring play. The Hornets converted the extra point to take a 13-12 halftime lead.

Steele, a sophomore, was impressive running the Holmdel offense. She showed great patience lofting a short pass to Julianna Kolbasovsky to give the Hornets a 19-12 lead.

Shore was able to storm back thanks to the stellar play of Drahos. A 1,000-point scorer in basketball, the junior looked like she had been playing competitive football for her entire life. In the first half, she won a jump ball on a pass that saw her tip the ball to herself for a fantastic catch. She accounted for all of Shore Regional’s scoring. Her third touchdown catch of the game was the best of the bunch. With Iannuzzelli rolling right inside the 10-yard line, she threw a pass to the end zone that saw Drahos leap in the air and catch the ball while falling to the turf and getting both feet inside the paint.

Teams can get an extra point from the 5-yard line or a two-point conversion at the 10. Shore could not convert, making the score 19-18.

The other way to score points in flag football is for the defense to make an interception. It was Drahos who gave Shore the lead with a pick to make it a 20-19 lead. The Iannuzzelli-Drahos combination gave Shore a cushion with a fourth touchdown that saw Drahos once again leap and absorb contact while hanging onto the football. One more Drahos interception sealed the victory. Four touchdown catches and two inteceptions accounted for all 28 Shore points. There’s no question Drahos has a future as a college basketball player but if there were scholarships offered for flag football, Rylee’s performance would have no doubt garnered attention at the next level.

“I don’t know, it just comes to me. I just like catching the ball. It’s just something different,” Drahos said. “Last year it was awesome, too. We just want to keep the momentum going with winning this year, too.”

Shore Regional’s Rylee Drahos had an amazing four touch- down, two interception game in the Blue Devils 28-19 win against Holmdel.
Shore Regional’s Rylee Drahos had an amazing four touchdown, two interception game in the Blue Devils 28-19 win against Holmdel. Photo by Rich Chrampanis

There has been a lot of publicity surrounding girls flag football across the state. The club sport is in its second season in the Shore Conference and the growth of the sport is evident. The National Football League has made it a priority to help get flag football launched across the country. With the New York Jets supporting programs in North Jersey, the Giants have staked their support for the Shore Conference for a second straight year. Anybody who watched the Shore/Holmdel game will tell you flag football won’t be a club sport for long.

“These girls love it,” Costantino said. “They’re playing other sports but these girls love football. We have five or six girls that are really good and we’ve got a bunch of others that are really coming on.”

There’s no question these trailblazing athletes are having fun but the Hornets and Blue Devils had the intensity and high-level of play of any great Shore Conference showdown. History could point to this game as one of the key stepping stones to the future of girls playing football for their high school.

This article originally appeared in the May 12-18, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.