SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Senior Colleen Medina intercepted four passes while junior Alexa Randall tallied a pair of pick sixes, boosting St. Francis to a 27-6 win over River City in the varsity half of a non-league girls' flag football doubleheader Wednesday evening. The Troubadours' victory followed an even more dominating 40-6 tilt against the Raiders in the junior varsity contest.

St. Francis, which showed up at No. 1 in MaxPreps first Sac-Joaquin Section rankings of the year, remains undefeated with an 8-0 mark. The jayvees improve to 3-0 for their own unbeaten streak.

The Troubies logged seven total interceptions in their win, largely holding River City in check. Randall's first touchdown came on the heels of a Raider pick on their own goal line about five minutes into the contest. She snagged a deflected ball deep her team's own territory, then returned it untouched for a 50-yard score.

Monet Zauner notched her lone interception with three minutes left in the second quarter, just two plays after SF was forced to  punt. Medina had her takeaways in the final River City series of the first half, on a fourth-and-long to start the third quarter, then a third on another fourth-down conversion attempt with under 10 minutes left in the third.

Finally, after Zauner nabbed her second pick six of the game to start the fourth quarter, Medina struck again on the Raiders' restart, returning the ball to the River City five-yard line.  

The favorable field positions on the interceptions also translated to two Troubie offensive scores. The Zauner takeaway set up St. Francis just shy of the midfield first-down marker. After Lola Fox completed a pair of gains to Annie Swanson to move across the 40, Jade Abalateo pitched to Natalia Zitelli, who then scampered 37 yards for the touchdown. Zitelli converted the one-pointer to follow, pushing the Troubadour lead to 14-6.  

Randall's second interception swelled that margin to 21-6, then the third Medina pickoff set up SF for a first-and-goal on the River City 5-yard line. Fox completed to Abalateo for four yards, then Zitelli's end run made it 27-6, invoking a running clock for the last 9:31 of the game.

Adding to the seven interceptions were another seven pass break-ups: two each by Randall, Piper Bates and Madison Trafican, plus another by Medina. Not surprisingly, Medina and Randall were selected as game MVPs by head coach Quincy Cooper and his staff.

River City scored its lone touchdown in the immediate wake of an interception of its own. Emily Saucedo picked off a pass on a Troubie 4th-and-5, then she hauled in a 35-yarder with 6:28 left in the first quarter. However, that was the last Raider threat, as their next five possessions ended in SF interceptions. RCHS punted only twice: once late in the first quarter, then again when a pitched short-hopped the running back on its own 4-yard line midway through the fourth.

Prior to the varsity win, St. Francis junior varsity rolled past the Raiders by a 40-6 final. Freshman quarterback Chloe Hoertsch ran for a 60-yarder to put her team on the board, threw strikes to Bridget Beard, Hope Sperber and Audri Gordon in the second, third and fourth quarters, respectively; then punched in a second rushing TD on a goal-line play in the final minutes.

Hoertsch also ran two conversions and connected with Gillian Hamm and Lily Hosseini on two others.

Also scoring touchdowns was Victoria Tateishi, who finished a 30-yard run to start the second quarter. Anna Votaw had what appeared to be a long TD on a double reverse, and Gordon ran Julia Tipton's lateral on a punt return almost 60 yards to the opposite end zone, but both players were called back due to penalties in the midfield.

Defensively, sophomore Talia Luhrsen posted two interceptions while Daniella Bonnel, Sloan Street and Angie Weston each had one. Sophomore Emerson Connor also had two PBUs. Rose Leahy broke up a pass on a third-and-short that forced River City to punt while leading her team with four deflaggings.

SF varsity returns to action in less than 24 hours with a 7 p.m. at Hiram Johnson. Junior varsity was originally scheduled but the Warriors did not field a JV squad, meaning the younger Troubies will play again on Tuesday in the home doubleheader with Pleasant Grove.