East Liverpool’s Naryah Monteiro (left) and Avery Galindo (right) catch St. Clairsville’s Divine Roby during Thursday’s flag football game at Patterson Field. (The Review/Michael Burich)

EAST LIVERPOOL — Pioneers in the sport of girls flag football, the young East Liverpool team is learning what it takes to build the foundations of a successful program.

In a hotly-contested game with division-leading and unbeaten St. Clairsville on Thursday at Patterson Field, the Potters nearly came away with an upset in a 27-25 loss.

The two teams met on March 29 and St. Clairsville won 41-19.

“We had good preparation, good attitude and the girls showed up and put in the work,” East Liverpool coach Jason Duke said. “We threw a lot at (the team) scheme-wise and they picked it up. We came away from the last game knowing what (St. Clairsville) liked to do and we came up with some things to slow it down a bit and it seemed to work.”

East Liverpool trailed 27-19 with two minutes left and an Arie Weyand touchdown run with seconds left in the game got the Potters to within two. All they needed was a two-point conversion from the 10-yard-line to tie, but there was some confusion as to what the actual score was and the Potters lined up for a 1-point conversion from the 5-yard line. It ended up failing and the Potters tried to let St. Clairsville score on its next possession to try to get the ball back but the Red Devils picked up on the plan and killed the clock with a kneel down.

Duke said that he believed that the officials had missed an extra point of the Potters earlier in the game. It seemed to be just part of the learning process for a first-year sport everyone was getting acquainted with.

East Liverpool’s team of 13 featured all underclassmen with many not having any football experience — including playing in the backyard.

“Honestly not a lot have experience,” receiver Courtney Barker said. “We’ve all worked through it. We just keep going.”

Barker, a basketball player in the winter, scored the Potters’ first and second touchdowns on the day, the first a pass from quarterback Caydence Wright and the second on a long run.

“I always play with my cousins and stuff and it has just been so much fun with these teammates and coaches,” Barker said. “This is the first opportunity in our school’s history for girls and I love it.”

Wright, who said she developed a love of football from her father, said she really wanted to be a receiver this season but ended up earning the starting quarterback job.

She did catch one pass in the game but was stopped at the 1-yard-line on the Potters’ first drive.

“I still love being the quarterback though,” Wright said.

Naryah Monteiro, a wrestler in the winter, took naturally to being one of the Potters’ stalwarts on defense. Her pressure against the St. Clairsville quarterback caused lots of chaos at times.

Not too bad for someone who was introduced to football when the first practice was held at the end of February.

“My dad is really, really into football, but I’m a cheerleader,” Monteiro said. “I’ve never watched it before.”

Montiero said it hasn’t been that hard to transition to football from wrestling.

“It was not a hard adjustment,” Monteiro said. “This is still a physical contact sport. You still take beatings but it is not hard to control yourself.”

The Red Devils (7-0) seem to be well on its way to securing the only automatic playoff berth for the Columbus Brown Division, while the Potters fell to 4-4.

Next season, the club sport will turn into a varsity sport and will move from a 5-on-5 model to a 7-on-7 model, but there is still a lot more to learn.

“You have to start from square one,” Duke said. “The refreshing part is it’s intelligent ignorance. They can learn it. They can learn it fast. They just don’t know what they don’t know. When you put something out there they pick it up quick.”

Game notes

• Duke said the Cleveland Browns pretty much paid for and handled everything this season including the scheduling. Yes, that included the uniforms, flags and field markers. The Browns also paid the officials.

“It pains me to say this as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, but a big thank you to the Cleveland Browns,” Duke said.

• Duke, the school’s athletic director, has been running the East Liverpool youth flag football program for eight years.

• East Liverpool finishes up the schedule with two games on April 17 at Newark.

• The Browns put the Potters into a Columbus area grouping this year, but next year as an official varsity sport the Potters will be able to schedule teams to the north.

• The Potters have three spring sports athletes on the team, but they did not see much playing time on Thursday.

• Duke said 11 division winners make the playoffs as well as five at-large teams in the Browns League. The Browns playoffs are set for May 11 at the University of Akron. The top four finishers there will advance to the state championship tournament along with the top four Cincinnati Bengals’ league finishers on May 16 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

SC: 7-20 — 27

EL: 6-19 — 25

SCORING

EL–Courtney Barker from Caydence Wright (pass failed)

SC–Kiya Kyer from Ryah Newell (Divine Roby from Newell)

SC–Evan Munson from Newell (Kyer from Newell)

EL–Barker run (pass failed)

SC–Kyer from Newell (pass failed)

SC–Kaylee Shafer run (Kyer from Newell)

EL–Arie Weyand from Wright (Naryah Monteiro from Wright)

EL–Weyand run (pass failed)