High School

Cardinal Newman girls win first North Coast Section Division 2 title in unbeaten style

Hayeems twins are headliners but the Cardinals have so much more as shown in a dominating finals victory over talented Acalanes team

Mitch Stephens

Cardinal Newman junior wide receiver Naiomi Hayeems was called the best receiver Acalanes coach Mike Ivankovich has ever seen in flag football after the Cardinals 34-6 North Coast Section Division 2 win over Acalanes Thursday (Nov. 6) at Clayton Valley Charter High School.
Cardinal Newman junior wide receiver Naiomi Hayeems was called the best receiver Acalanes coach Mike Ivankovich has ever seen in flag football after the Cardinals 34-6 North Coast Section Division 2 win over Acalanes Thursday (Nov. 6) at Clayton Valley Charter High School. / Photo by Ernie Abrea

CONCORD, Calif. — Cardinal Newman junior receiver Naiomi Hayeems wiped away the blood and burn marks from her right knee and said with a smile, “It was worth it.” 

Her twin sister, quarterback Nicole Hayeems — older by 13 minutes — with a bag of ice on her right wrist, shrugged and smiled: “Just a little sore from flicking it around. It doesn’t hurt. Honest.” 

No, the Hayeems sisters, a pair of transfers from Riordan in San Francisco, were feeling nothing but glee in the aftermath of a dominating 34-6 North Coast Section Division 2 championship win over Acalanes Thursday at Clayton Valley High School and an even more dominating, undefeated season. 

The Cardinals finished 24-0 and outscored opponents by a ridiculous 951-95 count. 

On Thursday, they got five total touchdowns from Nicole — four passing and one running — and the defense intercepted five passes, three by super athletic wide receiver/defensive back Molly Friedman to help defeat soundly an Acalanes team that came in 17-2 and having outscored foes  475-95 and recorded 12 shutouts. 

High school flag football, California
Cardinal Newman junior QB Nicole Hayeems accounted for all five touchdowns in her team's 34-6 North Coast Section Division 2 title win on Thursday Nov. 6 at Clayton Valley High School. / Photo by Ernie Abrea

Friedman set the tone with two interceptions in the first quarter. Naiomi Hayseems made a spectacular diving catch in the back corner of the end zone to go up 12-0 and added an over-the-shoulder 50-yard second-quarter touchdown catch on a perfectly placed rainbow from her strong-armed sister. 

““It’s a really special group,” said Cardinal Newman second-year coach Tino Retamoza, also an assistant coach on Newman’s tackle team which is 8-1 and quarterbacked by Retamoza’s sophomore son  L.T., who also calls plays for the flag squad (L.T. missed Thursday’s game due to tackle practice). “They’re a bunch of ballers. They work hard, are disciplined and athletic.”

But few around the Bay Area truly knew just how special and athletic the Cardinals were until Thursday. 

Hamstrung by a 20-game league schedule, Retamoza couldn’t find Bay Area teams to play so they came into the NCS playoffs a curious commodity. 

Hoping to get to see the best of the region in the playoffs, the NCS, in its second season of flag football playoffs, set them up in a two division format, graded by enrollment size. With only 566 students, the Cardinals were moved to Division 2 and made the obvious top seed. 

“We were hoping to play in Division 1 to really see where we stood,” Retamoza said. “We’re not complaining though.” 

Acalanes coach Mike Ivankovich, whose team played numerous ranked teams, was very impressed with the Cardinals, calling Naiomi Hayeems “the best receiver bar none I’ve seen at this level. They have a couple of very special athletes. They run great routes. The way (Naiomi) goes after 50-50 balls was very impressive. She came down with almost all of them.

“It was a great game with a lot of great athletes. They just made more big plays than us.” 

Naiomi Hayeems diving TD catch in the first quarter surprised herself, but not her sister. “As soon as it left my hands I knew she was gonna grab it,” Nicole said. “I’ve never seen her make that catch before, but she’s an amazing athlete. She’s really passionate.”

Said Naiomi, a basketball standout in her first season playing flag football, said: “I must admit I was proud of myself on that (diving) catch. I had run a post and when I saw (Nicole) running I just peeled out and she threw it to that one spot only I could get to. I didn’t know if I could get it so I just dove. It hurt and my knee got bloody, but it was worth it.”  

Nicole also had touchdown passes of 3 yards to Clover Chavez and 22-yards to Colbie Piehl as the Cardinals put a bow on a simply dominating season. 

The twins, whose family moved from San Francisco before the school year, are highly competitive both in general and with each other. Retamoza, in his second season, knew after a 9-3 first season the Cardinals would be title contenders. When the twins showed up, “I knew we'd be extra special. 

“But we’re deep. We have four or five girls that really go up and get after the ball. … We have a bunch of returners coming too, some really good talent. So I’m excited for the future of the program.” 

So is Ivankovich at Acalanes. 

Losing just five seniors, and returning such standouts as sophomores Agnost and June Natal (two interceptions Thursday, 11 on the season) and junior quarterback Ines Coyne and linebacker Avery DeMent, Ivankovich said that his program “is not nearly done. We had a great season: 17-3, 12 shutouts, NCS title game, we have so much to build off and now know some other areas we need to get better at.”

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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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