The No. 1 seed Klahowya Eagles won the 1A/2A West Central District girls flag football championship 35-21 against the No. 7-seed Kingston Buccaneers Jan. 31 at Integrity Roofing Stadium in Bremerton.

Both teams will advance to the state tournament. The Eagles went 3-0 at districts, beating No. 8 seed Fife 49-14, and then No. 4 seed Port Angeles 35-21 in the semifinals. The Buccaneers went 2-1, upsetting both No. 2 seed Franling Pierce 42-14 and No. 3 seed Sequim 37-7 in the semis. No. 5 seed North Kitsap also qualified for districts but lost its opening game to PA to be eliminated.

At state, Kingston will be the No. 5 seed and play No. 4 seed PA Feb. 7, while Klahowya will be the No. 2 seed and will match up against No. 7 seed Cedarcrest that same day.

In 4A, South Kitsap also qualified for state by going 2-1 at districts and making the semifinals. The No. 6 seed Wolves beat No. 11 seed Kennedy Catholic 35-14 and No. 3 seed Olympia 35-7 before falling to No. 2 seed Sumner 21-14 in the semis.

SK will be the No. 7 seed at state and will play No. 10 seed Kentridge Feb. 7 at Sumner High School.

In 3A, No. 7 seed Central Kitsap lost to No. 10 seed Enumclaw in the opening round of districts to be eliminated.

2A district title recap

The Bucs came out of the gates with an aggressive mindset, striking first with a touchdown pass to wide receiver Nevaeh Sullivan on their first drive of the game and taking the lead 7-0. But then Buccaneer quarterback Calla Unsell-West threw back-to-back interceptions on consecutive drives, giving momentum back to the Eagles.

Klahowya quarterback Leah Pearce delivered another passing touchdown to Savanna Hartmann after completing multiple touchdown passes earlier, giving the Eagles a 21-7 lead. Unsell-West threw another interception on the first play of the following drive, leading to another Eagle touchdown, this time to Carli Brunson, giving Klahowya a 28-7 lead entering halftime.

In the second half, Unsell-West completed a long touchdown pass to Amelie Eudeline, cutting the deficit to 14. However, the Eagles later managed to put together another touchdown-scoring drive with Pearce delivering the ball to wide receiver Addi Dunham.

However, the Eagles got the ball back and managed to put together another TD-scoring drive with Pearce delivering the ball to Addi Dunham.

Unsell-West threw another touchdown, getting the deficit back down to 14 once again. Kingston successfully converted an onside kick to get the ball back, but couldn’t put another score in.

“I feel the only way they could get back in it was an interception return for a touchdown or something like that,” Klahowya coach Dan Ericson said. “These girls are really great kids. If you’ve got to pick some of the best kids in our school, they’d be right here as far as students, athletes, leaders, multiple sport athletes [with] great GPAs and high character.”

Eagle quarterback Leah Pearce throws a pass in Klahowya’s 35-21 win over Kingston in the West Central District 1A/2A girls flag football championship Jan. 31 at Integrity Roofing Stadium in Bremerton.