FAIRBURN, Ga. — When the Newton flag football team left the field at Langston Hughes after its Final Four loss to Blessed Trinity on Monday, the team did so with a lot to hang their hat on.

The program’s first ever area championship — check.

The first Elite Eight appearance — check.

The first Final Four appearance — check.

Even though the team’s season concluded with a 0-27 loss to Blessed Trinity, head coach Steven Gunn was more than proud of what his team accomplished in 2025.

“We have seven seniors on the team. Six of them have been with me since I got here,” Gunn said. “They saw the 5-13 season. They saw an 18-7 second round exit last year. Hungry — that’s what they were. To come in here and to have never won a second round playoff game, never hosted, never won [the] area — we accomplished all those boxes this year.”

Perry plays hero as Newton makes Final Four

After the team won the area and entered the playoff with back-to-back wins in the first two rounds, Newton was pitted against the Marist Lady War Eagles(15-8) in the Elite Eight held at Langston Hughes.

A win meant that the team would play 15 minutes after in the Final Four, and the Lady Rams saw that chance almost slip away early in the contest.

Newton went three-and-out on its first drive, and Marist capitalized quickly.

The Lady War Eagles struck big with a big run from Ella Mullally that set the team on the goal line before Catherine Rhino scored on an option.

The short rush put Marist ahead 7-0, and the Newton offense continued its slow start as Marist went on to add more in the second quarter.

Newton was held to a punt, but Marist’s Mullally took the return and raced past the Lady Rams special teams unit for the return touchdown. The extra point was no good, but Newton found itself down 0-13.

With Marist in the driver seat, Newton found a way to answer.

A long drive put the Lady Rams in Marist territory before quarterback Mya Perry connected with Amaya Amrstead, who was behind the entire defense.

Newton’s extra point was no good as the two teams entered the five-minute halftime with Marist ahead 13-6.

Following a Marist three-and-out to start the second half, Newton put itself in a position to score once again.

A string of positive plays was capped by a touchdown throw from Perry to Aryanah Clark, who high-pointed the ball for the difficult grab.

With the extra point, the game was tied at 13-13 as the two schools went on to have an action-packed final quarter.

Newton’s defense forced a turnover on downs to begin the frame, but Marist managed to get the ball right back with an interception from Mullally.

After she grabbed the pick, Mullally returned on offense to score the go-ahead touchdown.

A key moment that came back to bite the Lady War Eagles came on the extra point, when the pass was deflected by Newton’s Jordan Devoe to keep it a six-point game.

With only 2:30 on the clock and the full field to go, the Lady Rams needed their best drive of the day — and they got it.

Perry made surgical throws to move the sticks time and time again before Newton found itself in the red zone.

However, a few negative plays led to a fourth and goal with 15 yards to go for the Lady Rams.

Perry snapped the ball, rolled to her left and to her right before she threw a strike to Flournoy, who leaped up to make the touchdown catch.

The game was tied at 19-19, and Marist did not do itself any favors as a penalty moved Newton even closer to the goal line for its extra point.

With the entire offense huddled at the line, Perry took the snap and rushed forward for the go-ahead score to put Newton up 20-19.

20 seconds remained, and Gunn sent Perry out on defense.

A few plays later, Perry came down with a game-sealing interception to send Newton to the Final Four for the first time ever.

“[It was] do or die,” Gunn said. “We had to, we had to score right there. 19-13, we battled back from 13-0 at halftime and tied it up. Give up a score somehow, but got the stop so they didn't get the extra point. Knowing that we could god won and score seven and win the ball game. Penalty happened and pushed us closer to the goal. We just stuck it out and got in there. Exhilarating, but we had to go make a play. The defense had to go back out and they had 26 seconds. They got to midfield but we just had to bow our neck and hang our hat on what we hang on everytime.”

After the games on Monday, Gunn made sure to harp on the importance of the team’s Final Four berth.

“We are a Final Four team. We are one of the best four teams in Division 4 flag football,” Gunn said. “There are only four teams that can say that and we are one of them. Those girls right there, [it’s] because of the effort they put in during the summer time and I am so proud.”

Blessed Trinity overmatches Lady Rams to advance to the championship

After a short hiatus, Newton found itself back on the field to take on Blessed Trinity in its Final Four matchup.

The Lady Titans defeated the hosts, Langston Hughes, in their Final Four matchup to begin the day.

Newton’s battle with Blessed Trinity started slow as a pair of punts turned into four consecutive drives that ended with a turnover on downs.

Defenses controlled the pace, but the Lady Titans struck first on a short completion from quarterback Addie Spak to Hannah Daley.

Following another Newton punt, Blessed Trinity added on.

On a deep ball into contested coverage, Blessed Trinity’s Addy Wilson leaped over a pair of Lady Rams to make the grab before she back-pedaled into the end zone for the score.

Wilson was one of many tall skill players on the field for Lady Titans, and Gunn stressed the challenges in facing a larger tea,

“As you can see on our side we are not that tall, we don’t have that length. We got a few girls over 5-foot-6, so it’s hard and you don’t want to play everyone both ways because they’ll just get worn out,” Gunn said. “They do have a lot of tall girls and we did get caught over a few times, but they were really fast and really well coached.”

As the Lady Titans offense began to find its success, the defense continued to keep Newton in check as tight coverage combined with a consistent pass rush prevented Perry from making plays downfield.

This led to a pair of interceptions from Blessed Trinity’s Hannah Daley and Allie Nevle late in the game.

Two late scores from the Lady Titans stretched the lead to 27-0 before the Blessed Trinity offense ended the game in victory formation.

Season Outlook

With the loss to the Lady Titans, the Lady Rams end their season with a 17-6-1 record.

Although the year is now at its end for Newton, the Lady Rams checked almost all of the boxes that the team had at the start of the season.

Gunn noted how the team is set to lose a handful of seniors, but the emergence of many of the school’s younger players will set the team up well in 2026.

“The next step is to keep doing what we are doing,” Gunn said. “Keep playing in the summer time, win our area, host again, and next year just put ourselves in a position to be in the Benz. We have a ton of girls returning, that will be great — Mya Perry, Jamira Flournoy, Amaya Amrstead, Chardaye Wilkerson, Madison Burrough — a bunch of girls returning. It will be tough to fill those spots of Dionna Thomas, Aryanah Clark, and Tailiyah Church. Three year starters, all of them. But, I have some babies that are playing JV that can step in there and do that, and that is why we have a JV team.

“Overall, we just have to work through the summer. Play as many tough games as we can to put ourselves in a position where if we get down like we did tonight, we don’t hang our heads and we can play through that adversary.”