Scots capture first, official PAL title

But the PAL officially offered the sport in 2024 and the Scots picked up where they left off last year — going 9-0 as they hosted Mills in the season finale Wednesday.

And when the final horn sounded to signal a 19-7 Carlmont win, the Scots not only completed their second straight undefeated run through PAL play, this time the championship — officially — counts.

“This one feels a lot better,” said Carlmont quarterback, junior Lauren Greene, who accounted for 166 yards of total offense and a score.

“This was a much harder season. … We all worked really hard.”

Carlmont (10-0 PAL) has proven to be the cream of the PAL crop and the Scots showed it throughout the season, with a high-scoring offense and a shutdown defense. And while defenses win championships in football, a team still needs to score some points and the Scots did score just enough.

But things got off to a slow start as neither team could get much going offensively. There were no first downs through the first five possessions of the game, but Greene said she and her team didn’t let the lack of offense get to them.

“I wasn’t getting frustrated. We knew [the Vikings] were a good team,” Greene said.

The Scots did have a couple of opportunities early the half and they looked like they were in business when it appeared Ameena Mohammed connected with Euna Min for a 33-yard gain on the second of a double pass. But a flag was thrown and it was ruled Green’s pass to Mohammed was forward.

The Scots twice tried the double-pass play and twice they were flagged for an illegal forward pass on the initial throw.

But Carlmont finally got something going midway through the first half and Greene got it done with her legs. After a 1-yard run, Greene took the snap and headed left on an option run play. She faked the pitch and motored 45 yards down to the Mills 14.

Two plays later, Greene went the final 11 yards, extending the ball over the goal line just as a Vikings defender pulled her flag. The Scots converted the point after and led 7-0 with 8:40 left in the first half.

Greene would finish the game with 104 yards rushing on seven carries. She also was 12 of 14 passing for 62 yards.

Mills, on its next possession, picked up its initial first down of the game via a roughing the passer call. But the drive stalled and the Vikings gave the ball back to the Scots, which went three-and-out to give the ball back to Mills with a little over minute left to play.

That’s when the Scots came up with the play that really turned out to be the backbreaker. On first down, Min stepped in front of a pass and went 27 yards the other way for a touchdown and a 13-0 lead with 45 seconds left in the half.

“That was huge,” said Carlmont head coach Oscar Fabic. “She’s the quarterback of the defense.”

Carlmont got the ball to start the second half and the Scots put together their best drive of the night. Starting at the 20, the Scots drove 60 yards on eight plays. After not using the jet-option once in the first half, the Scots went to it heavy in the second.

It’s a play in which a player goes in motion and Greene simply pops the ball up in the air as the motion runner as she goes by. Because Greene is giving the ball in front of her, it becomes a pass. Carlmont ran it four times on the drive, but it was Samantha Tow’s scrambling ability that resulted in a touchdown that put the Scots up 19-0.

Taking over for Greene on the play, Tow took the snap and had to scramble around to keep the play alive. Eventually, she was hemmed in along the right sideline before heaving a pass to the end zone — that found Emily Monteforte for a 13-yard score.

Mills finally got some offense going on its first possession of the second half. Quarterback Luna Mengel-Yoshimura hit Kalyssa Chu for a 35-yard gain. Mengel-Yoshimura then escaped pressure for a 19-yard gain and then found Lina Vaka for a 3-yard touchdown pass to cut the Carlmont lead to 19-7.

And the Vikings were back in business on the following play as Lucy Esquivel took the ball out of a Carlmont runner’s hands on a pitch to give Mills first down at the Carlmont 11-yard line.

But for the second time in the game, the Carlmont defense made the play, with Bella Wilson intercepting a pass in the end zone to end the threat and all but ice the game.

“What a game,” Fabic said. “[The PAL title is] official, so it feel good.”