Early-season growing pains have led to rapid improvement for the San Marcos High flag football team.
Those gains were on full display during a 36-6 rout of visiting Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in a non-league contest Thursday night at Warkentin Stadium.
“It’s starting to come together. We are really young. We only have three seniors and basically one junior starter; the rest are just freshmen and sophomores filling in,” said San Marcos coach Walter Bazylewicz. “They are talented and athletic, but they are figuring it out. It’s a lot of fun watching them grow and seeing the mental part of the game come together for them.”
One of the new impact players is Walter’s daughter, Isabella Bazylewicz, who has exploded onto the scene as a freshman. Against Notre Dame, she scored three touchdowns—two receiving and one rushing—while also turning in a solid performance on defense.
“She is just a phenomenal athlete,” Walter said of his daughter, Isabella. “We lost some great players, but with Piper [Kittle] and Izabella, and a lot of the young kids we have coming in, like Nora [Leonardi], who is a freshman as well, we have some new impact players.”
San Marcos opened the game with a 10-play, 66-yard drive capped by a 17-yard touchdown pass from Victoria Aldana to Bazylewicz. The Royals took an 8-0 lead after the ensuing two-point conversion pass from Aldana to Bazylewicz.
Notre Dame was mounting a drive of its own until Piper Kittle stepped in front of a short pass up the middle and returned it 57 yards for a touchdown, increasing San Marcos’ lead to 14-0 with 13 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
On the ensuing Notre Dame possession, Kittle snagged her second interception of the game, setting up San Marcos with first-and-goal from the 18-yard line. On the first play, Aldana connected with Kittle for a touchdown, increasing the San Marcos lead to 21-0 with 10:46 left in the second quarter.
“I’ve definitely improved from last year,” Kittle said. “It has just been a fun year so far, seeing my hard work pay off.”
Notre Dame’s next drive began with an illegal-block penalty. On the next play, Jaylee Perez pulled the Notre Dame quarterback’s flag in the end zone for a safety, putting San Marcos ahead 23-0.
In the second half, Aldana connected with Bazylewicz once more on a 15-yard touchdown pass, and Bazylewicz added a 36-yard touchdown run to close the scoring.
Notre Dame’s lone touchdown came on a four-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Taylor Ford.
With the win, San Marcos improves to 7-2 and will host Buena in another non-league contest Saturday.
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