ROCKLIN, Calif. – Senior Jade Abalateo fired two touchdown passes to Annie Swanson in the final four minutes to slash what had been a three-possession deficit, while Monet Zauner snared three of her team's five interceptions, but early turnovers ultimately doomed St. Francis to a 25-22 loss at Rocklin in Sierra Foothill League girls' flag football action Tuesday night.

The Troubadours move to 17-4 for the season with a 6-3 record in league play. The Thunder improves to 8-10 overall, 4-5 in SFL contests.

St. Francis surrendered a total of seven turnovers, the first of which gave Rocklin possession in the SF red zone. The Thunder capitalized for its first touchdown with 3:53 left in the first. However, Randall flipped that script early in the second, when her first pick led directly to Abalateo's 10-yard touchdown to Tayli Paeu-Lindgren for the equalizer.

Unfortunately for SF, Rocklin responded with touchdowns in each of the second, third and fourth quarters to take a 25-6 lead by the 7:57 mark in the final frame. Taylor Mitchell also came up with an interception against a Thunder red zone chance but the Troubies responded with another giveaway of their own, resulting in a short field and the Rocklin TD to make it 19-6.

Even Zauner's third pick was neutralized with an SF turnover just two plays later. Abbey Pavelchik and Paeu-Lindgren held off two chances, but Rocklin converted its fourth-and-goal in extending its lead to 19.

St. Francis finally broke up the Thunder scoring when long runs for both Abalateo and Natalia Zitelli brought the Troubies inside the Rocklin 20. Abalateo connected with Swanson, then Zitelli ran in the two-point conversion to close the gap to 25-14.

A quarterback sack by Holland Sperber helped force a Thunder punt shortly before the two-minute warning. Another Zitelli run plus a defensive holding penalty marched the Troubies to their opponents' 6-yard line. Two plays later, Abalateo found Swanson yet again, cutting the lead to 25-20 with 55.4 seconds and two SF timeouts remaining.

Piper Bates delivered two stops, including a sack that pushed Rocklin back to its 9-yard line for a fourth-and-11 with 3.2 seconds left. Rather than punt and risk a game-winning return, the Thunder opted to run back to its own end zone to kill the clock, then step out of bounds for a safety and a final score of 25-22.

The varsity setback followed a rare loss for St. Francis' junior varsity, which fell to Rocklin's jayvees by a 20-6 final. The Thunder scored three unanswered before Chloe Hoertsch found Lily Hosseini for a 15-yard touchdown in SF's final drive of the game.

The Troubie JV squad snapped its unbeaten streak to seven games, suffering its first loss since falling by a 14-7 score to Whitney on September 11. They move to 11-2-1 for the year, 6-2-1 in SFL play.

Both SF squads return to action on Thursday for a 3:45/5:15 p.m. doubleheader against Oak Ridge, hosted at Jesuit as a lead-in to the Marauder frosh football game. Tickets are available only through GoFan, either in advance on the app or platform, or at the gates through GoFan Box Office.