Catherine Piccininni has found her groove, and so has Smithtown\u2019s offense. <\/p>\n
The quarterback showed off her versatility in host Smithtown\u2019s 33-7 victory over Copiague in Suffolk I girls flag football on Friday night. Piccininni completed 20 of 25 passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns and had seven carries for 93 yards and three scores. <\/p>\n
The 33-point outburst was a season high for Smithtown (4-3), which has won three of its last four games. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt took us a while in the beginning of the season,\u201d Piccininni said. \u201cBut this feels good. After every loss, it was a lesson for us. Now we\u2019re looking to go on a roll and make the playoffs.\u201d <\/p>\n
On the fifth play of the opening drive, Piccininni spun past two defenders for a 21-yard rushing touchdown to help make it 7-0. <\/p>\n
Later in the quarter, Piccininni connected with Lucia Rappa three times on the same drive. The third completion went for a 2-yard touchdown, and Smithtown led 14-0 after a quarter. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve played good defense all year, but offensively we\u2019re starting to click. The girls are getting the concepts. I\u2019m understanding it more \u2014 it\u2019s different from the fall,\u201d said Smithtown\u2019s Craig Perrino, who also coaches boys in football. \u201cThe girls are working hard and getting better. That\u2019s all you can ask.\u201d <\/p>\n
Copiague was in Smithtown territory before halftime, but Isabella Paliwoda recorded an interception to preserve a 20-0 lead. Juliana Gandarillas and Ella Murray added interceptions in the second half. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis year is the year we\u2019ve had the closest, tight-knit group, and it shows on the field,\u201d Paliwoda said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been locking in pregame, and we know our teammates will have each other\u2019s backs on defense.\u201d <\/p>\n
Copiague got on the board when eighth-grader Gianna Lewis leaped and hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass from Ja\u2019Nyah Martin late in the fourth quarter. After winning one game last season, the Eagles are 5-3. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a better offseason. The girls turned into football players, and they enjoy the game,\u201d Copiague coach Philip Fortuno said. \u201cGianna is a special talent. I also have her in class, and she\u2019s a great kid. I\u2019m looking forward to having her for a couple more years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine Piccininni has found her groove, and so has Smithtown\u2019s offense. The quarterback showed off her versatility in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[117861,7,7719,114666,117862,117863],"class_list":{"0":"post-868834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-copiague","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-hs-flag-football","11":"tag-hs-gamer","12":"tag-smithtown-east","13":"tag-smithtown-west"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116423251741891666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}