North Coast Section flag football playoff roundup: EBAL cleans up on Division 1 field

California, Granada and San Ramon Valley streak to semifinals to join top seed, undefeated Las Lomas; Cardinal Newman, Acalanes continue to dominate in Division 2

Granada wide receiver Marin Lnenicka (3) has helped the Matadors into the North Coast Section semifinals / Photo by Bob Bronzan Livermore/Granada Boosters

The North Coast Section flag football playoffs have turned into an East Bay Athletic League party. 

At least the Division I bracket has that flavor with three of the four semifinalists laying claim to the league that has consistently all season dominated the section’s rankings. 

Second-seed California-San Ramon, fifth-seed Granada-Livermore and No. 6 San Ramon Valley-Danville all won quarterfinal matches on Thursday night and now join top-seed an undefeated Las Lomas-Walnut Creek (25-0) in Tuesday’s semifinals. 

Las Lomas (18-0) will host Granada (14-6), while San Ramon Valley (16-6) travels to California (17-3) in 7 p.m. semifinal matches. 

Granada shocker

Granada pulled off the biggest surprise on Thursday with a 33-0 victory over Heritage-Brentwood, just two days after the Patriots posted a 41-0 victory over Maria Carrillo, the team’s 12th shutout of the season. 

Granada's Katie Vail (2) is a quick, versatile highly productive quarterback for the Matadors / Photo by Bob Bronzan

But Granada, which eeked out a 26-20 first-round overtime win over defending champion Alameda, had little trouble against the Patriots, who entered with a gaudy 599-52 margin-of-victory edge on the season. 

It was the third time in two years, however, that Granada got the better of Heritage, though the other two games last season were by scores of 20-14 and 19-0. 

The Matadors, led by senior quarterback Katie Vail (3,775 yards passing, 41 touchdowns in 19 games), appear to be peaking at just the right time as they showed for 2.5 quarters Tuesday against Alameda, while streaking to a 20-6 lead. 

Alameda comeback

The Hornets, however, came racing back and tied the game at 20-20 with 37 seconds left. Vail, who finished 30 of 43 for 351 yards while accounting for all four touchdowns, fired what looked to be a game-winning 35-yard touchdown pass to Isabelle Dunn (9 catches, 129 yards, TD) in regulation, but Alameda’s Pamela Smith made a diving snag of the flag at the Alameda 5, sending the game to overtime. 

These are the 2024 NCS champion, Alameda Hornets. Interesting that they won the NCS title with a 26-20 overtime win and in 2025 they were eliminated by the same score in overtime to Granada. / Photo: Jim Malone

Vail then put the Matadors ahead 26-20 with a clutch fourth-down 3-yard TD pass to freshman Bellamy Black, who hauled in her first varsity touchdown. Alameda had a chance to tie or win it in overtime, but a sack from Bisele Badilla and pass deflection on fourth-down from Liv Lnenicka clinched the win. 

Tears of joy

Black, the daughter of Granada tackle coach Brandon Black, came off the field in tears of joy after the emotional victory. 

Granada's Gisele Badilla with one of two sacks in a win over Heritage on Thursday. / Photo by Bob Bronzan/Livermore Granada Boosters

“I’m just so overwhelmed,” Black said. “To do this for my teammates, the seniors, for Katie I’m just so happy. Our whole season was on the line. To get my first touchdown in the spot feels amazing.” 

Said Vail of the go-ahead TD: “I saw her wide open and knew she’d come down with it. I started rolling right on the play, but when I rolled back left I could (Black) all alone. I just had to get it to her. I’m so glad I could get it to her and we made that senior to freshman connection. I’m super proud of her.” 

Liv’s older sister Marin Lnenicka (9 catches, 92 yards) was all over the field as was Rowan Weiss who had a game-high eight tackles. Badilla added two sacks. 

Vail, a point guard on the basketball team, never let her team waver at any point Tuesday, scoring on 2-yard keeper and completed TD passes of 20 yards to Dunn and a 60-yarder to Caitlyn Nguyen-Schertzer, the latter to open the second half. Black set up a pair of the scoring drives with more than 50 yards rushing on three carries. 

No backdown

“Alameda was a great team and came back late, but we never back down,” Vail said. 

Either does California, which posted a 13-0 win over Clayton Valley Charter-Concord in quarterfinal play, while San Ramon Valley pulled out an 8-2 win over No. 3 seed Liberty-Brentwood. 

California senior QB Caeli AuYeng completed 15 of 23 for 142 yards and touchdowns to Brooke Horton and Olivia Horton against Clayton Valley. Olivia Horton also had eight tackles, Lana Vu contributed two sacks and Janie Trottier contributed an interception. 

Sophomore sensation

San Ramon Valley is led by sophomore QB Gia Ryan, who has already passed for 8,613 yards and 110 touchdowns in 42 career games. The Wolves will try to turn around a 14-7 loss to California in last week’s EBAL finals, the eighth straight loss they’ve sustained against the Grizzlies over two season. All but one of those games were a one-score game. 

San Ramon Valley sophomore QB Gia Ryan is one of the top sophomore QBs in California / Photo by Jim Malone

Perhaps it’s the Wolves’ time. Ryan has a variety of receiving weapons, led by Lena Clark (81 catches, 511 yards, 5 TDs), along with Hania Bowes (44, 646, 9), Asha Hanger (52, 738, 8) and freshman Tatum Prindiville (63, 532, 7). 

The non-EBAL school Las Lomas is the favorite. The Nights just got past Castro Valley as junior QB Maggie Kruger connected with Grace Spencer on a 9-yard TD for the only score of the game. Kruger is having an MVP season having completed 246 of 403 passes for 2,817 yards and 49 touchdowns. She’s also rushed for 1,310 yards and 20 more scores. No other Las Lomas player has rushed for more than 116 yards. 

Her main receiving targets are Violet Keeperman (53 catches, 932 yards, 20 touchdowns) and Hannah Shank (63, 688, 11).  

Division 2

Top seed and unbeaten Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (25-0) continued its absolute dominance this season with a 40-7 quarterfinal win over Novato, and will now host fourth seed Arroyo-San Lorenzo, a 26-6 win over San Marin-Novato. 

Newman has now outscored its 22 opponents by a remarkable 861-76 margin. Arroyo (19-6) has outscored its opponents 502-216 but has never met the Cardinals. 

In the other quarterfinal games, second-seed Acalanes-Lafayette recorded its 11th shutout with a 19-0 quarterfinal win over Campolindo-Moraga, and now faces third-seed and undefeated St. Mary’s-Berkeley, a 14-9 winner over Benicia. 

Acalanes (16-2) now hosts St. Mary’s (20-0) in Tuesday’s 7 p.m. semifinal match.