ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - Senior Natalia Zitelli scored two receiving touchdowns while posting seven tackles for losses on the defensive side, and sophomore Lily Hosseini caught a pair of red-zone scores, leading St. Francis varsity and junior varsity to respective shutouts against former Delta League foes in non-league flag football action.

The Troubadour varsity shut out Pleasant Grove 20-0 on the road, while the jayvees beat Sheldon at home 36-0. Both the Eagles and Huskies formerly shared Delta League membership with St. Francis but did not launch their flag football programs until the Troubies departed for the Sierra Foothill League.

All of St. Francis’ scoring in the varsity win came in the first half, with sophomore Finley McKinnon adding a 32-yard TD strike of her own. Zitelli put the Troubies on the board with 3:51 remaining in the first, with a roughing-the-passer penalty and a 15-yard connection from Lola Fox setting up the red-zone chance. McKinnon’s touchdown came just after the seven-minute mark in the second, in which she turned a short Fox toss down the middle into a score.

Senior Millie Katzeff nabbed the one-point conversions on each of the two touchdowns.

St. Francis extended its lead near the end of the first half. The drive began with a bit of a backslide, as Zitelli was stopped for negative yards at the Troubie 13. With less than a minute left before the break, Fox found Zitelli on her left side. The senior back raced toward her own bench before turning upfield for a 67-yard score.

Zitelli also dominated the defensive end, stifling the Pleasant Grove offense throughout the first half. She posted the first of her three sacks on the first Eagle play from scrimmage and ended the half with a six-yard sack and another three-yard tackle-for-loss. In all, ZItelli pulled eight flags – matching teammate Piper Bates – with three sacks and four TFLs among them.

St. Francis enjoyed big defensive plays throughout, with Katzeff and Hope Sperber recording pass breakups in consecutive series during the second half. Junior Alyssa Becze also broke up a pass near the end of the contest, only for Pleasant Grove senior Niah McNally-Williams to somehow collect the tipped attempt and advance the ball for a 36-yard play: the longest for the Eagles. St. Francis, however, neutralized that threat on the next play, as Cali Chambers picked off the pass and ran the ball to the Pleasant Grove 30 for the final play of the game.

Varsity’s road win followed an even more dominant performance from the St. Francis JV squad back home. Hosseini had a four-yard grab for the game’s first score while adding an 11-yard touchdown in the fourth. Quarterback Parker Smith added the second TD on a 7-yard keeper with 1:30 left in the first.

Freshman Gurnoor Mahal had perhaps the most fortuitous touchdown of the game to start the second. Sheldon had punted the ball to Scarlett Hamilton, who returned the ball to her own 26-yard line. The officials spotted the ball but lined up the two teams on the incorrect side of the ball. Instead of a 1st-and-14 on its own 26, St. Francis now had a short field, with a 1st-and-6 on the Sheldon 26. Mahal hauled in a pass on the first play before anyone realized the mistake.

In the first drive of the second half, St. Francis forced Sheldon out on downs, giving the Troubies their shortest field position yet: 1st-and-goal on the 18. Mahal and Hamilton teamed up for an 18-yard hook-and-ladder TD with 8:34, boosting the St. Francis’ lead to 24-0.

After Hosseini’s second touchdown at the 6:30 mark in the fourth, freshman Abbey Taylor made a leaping grab to snare Olivia Smith’s 11-yard toss: a score set up by Rose Leahy’s interception one play earlier.

Leahy’s pick was the lone takeaway for the Troubies, but the defense held the Huskies throughout. Emily Nguyen had three tackles-for-losses and a deflagging for no gain. Hayden Swift deflected a pair of Sheldon passes and Leahy, Hamilton and Ainsley Weitz also interrupted the Huskies’ pass game.