Stetson Dickerson went with a “man-beater” play to win the first Sumner County girls flag football championship for Liberty Creek.
With seconds winding and the Wolves tied with Hendersonville on the 1-yard line, Dickerson shook off offensive coordinator Mike Garcia, taking back-to-back timeouts with four seconds and inserting an option pitch to outmatch a man-to-man look from the Commandos.
They brought Addie Medina across in a pre-snap motion. Quarterback Olivia Tate took the snap. Hendersonville took the bait, and Tate tossed it to her right to running back Ruby Saylor, who scored the championship-winning touchdown in the last second.
“We decided to do something with a little motion,” Dickerson said, “and if they’re gonna play man. It was something that we had run – we didn’t run it tonight, but we ran it the past couple weeks, and it was good for us down there (against) man.”
“It was a lot to go through in under four seconds,” Saylor said. “But we did it.”
The Wolves (8-2) shut out Station Camp in their semifinal and knocked off previously undefeated Hendersonville with a 13-7 win in Wednesday’s flag football finale.
They move on to face Wilson County’s champion at Cumberland University on May 1, with the winner of that game advancing to the girls flag football state invitational in Murfreesboro.
“It’s exciting to make history in the first year of this, and just to have a team to look back on and us be like, ‘Wow. We did that,’” said Saylor, who scored the first and final touchdowns of the intra-county season.
The Liberty Creek girls soccer product was also an answer in holding Hendersonville’s flag football veteran Addi George to a season-low in points.
George completed 17 of her 26 passes as Hendersonville’s quarterback in the championship game. Saylor limited her from big plays along the sidelines as a runner.
Her teammate Ava Hourigan had an interception against George that set up the go-ahead drive.
“Ruby’s our best tackler,” Dickerson said. “…As far as I’m concerned, she’s the best outside linebacker in the county. She just gets better and does the simple things really, really well.”
George scored the 19th touchdown of her freshman season, finding Kaylee Mundle to put Hendersonville (9-1) ahead less than three minutes into the title game.
Tate, who grew up tossing a football with her dad, threw a short slant to Caroline Pomeroy at the midway mark of the first half.
Pomeroy broke free over the middle for the 50-yard equalizer.
The Commandos suffered their first loss as a program after Saylor’s late score.
They couldn’t cash in on four possessions that played into Liberty Creek’s portion of the field. On top of the late pick, Hendersonville failed on three different fourth-down conversions.
“Our girls stay humble and be respectful, no matter what the record is, where other teams are pretty blatant about certain things. So I’m very proud of our girls,” Hendersonville coach Jennifer Bridenbaugh said. “You know, they made history, and I think that’s what’s important.”
Liberty Creek, statistically, had the best season of any area team, averaging more than 22 points per game and allowing less than six a contest. The Wolves were still the second-overall seed after a 13-7 defeat against Hendersonville and a 20-6 loss to Station Camp in the first and final weeks of the regular season.
Dickerson said they were shorthanded with schedule conflicts in both losses.
“Our goal was to get better and better, and I think last Wednesday … we were better than anybody in the county that night,” he said.
As they grew again in numbers, Liberty Creek’s team also learned the sport across the past month of play.
“I think only two of us knew what we were doing when we came into this,” Saylor said, “and then for us to all start and grow together just was really an amazing thing to watch.”
Below are scores and more from the semifinals:
Hendersonville 34, Gallatin 6: Hendersonville held a 21-0 halftime lead against sixth-seeded Gallatin and won its ninth straight game to advance to the area championship. Addi George, Kiersten Ramsey, Alana Jennings and Amanda Bourk built a big lead for the Commandos. Bourk completed a flea-flicker pass and had two interceptions alongside her touchdown catch. Cumberland commitment Addison Huddleston recorded Gallatin’s lone score.
Liberty Creek 26, Station Camp 0: Liberty Creek used the length of the field to avenge last week’s loss to Station Camp. Paeytn Garner returned an interception 70 yards for a touchdown, and the Wolves added on with a 75-yard drive before halftime. Ruby Saylor and Caroline Pomeroy also scored against Station Camp, which surged into the semifinals winning four of its last six games.
