Everett flag football wins ‘BruGull’ Bowl

Published 10:30 pm Monday, January 26, 2026

EVERETT — It looked like Everett girls flag football would have to settle for a one-possession lead entering the second half against Cascade at Everett Memorial Stadium on Monday.

Quarterback Anna Luscher scrambled into the end zone with 27 seconds left in the half, and while no one pulled her flags, the official pulled his own and sent the yellow laundry to the turf. The official ruled Luscher was flag guarding, and since the play came on fourth down, it resulted in a turnover on downs and kept the score at 7-0, Everett.

However, the Everett defense managed to stall Cascade’s ensuing drive to set up fourth down on the latter’s own nine-yard line with 10 seconds left. Cascade bled some time off the clock before heaving a desperation shot downfield. It fell incomplete, but with one second left. Everett would have one chance to pick up nine yards and put more points on the board before the break. Head coach Brandon Moore had a clear message for his group before they took the field.

“‘Hey, we got the ball back, we’re going to go score,’” Moore recalled saying. “There wasn’t a doubt in our mind that we were going to score, because we felt like we kind of got the rough call there right at the end of our other drive. So we wanted to punch that one in.”

Luscher took the snap, backpedaling to create more space between herself and the Cascade designated rusher. She quickly noticed her first read was not open, and rolled out to buy more time when she noticed senior Braylon Yarwood wide open on the left side of the end zone. She fired it her way, and Yarwood hauled it in, keeping her feet inbounds in the back corner, to put Everett up 14-0 going into halftime.

“The wheel (route) is not normally what we go for on that play,” Luscher said. “But I saw (Yarwood) wide open in the end zone, and I just threw her the ball, and she caught it.”

The Seagulls (6-10) scored again on the first drive of the second half en route to a 28-14 win against the Bruins (7-9), capturing the inaugural ‘BruGull Bowl’ between the crosstown rivals. For Everett, it was the perfect way to cap the regular season before they attempt to make a run in the first-ever District 1 3A Girls Flag Football Tournament this weekend.

“I’m really proud to be a part of this organization,” Yarwood said. “And to have Everett be able to hold this title eventually, and just to get to where we’re going, (I’m) proud to be the first part of it.”

After starting 1-9, the Seagulls closed the regular season by winning five of their final six games, building their playbook and introducing more complex concepts as the players developed in a sport that was completely new for a large portion of the roster.

Instead of always taking direct snaps under center, Luscher would often get the ball from a tailback on a lateral directly after the snap, which would give her the option to pass or run as opposed to being forced to throw. According to WIAA rules, the player who takes the snap cannot advance past the line of scrimmage as a ball-carrier directly, so by snapping to a tailback and immediately dishing it to Luscher, the options open up for the offense.

Moore also sprinkled in a handful of reverse plays and misdirections, one of which led to junior Celis Roberson carrying the ball down to the eight-yard line, which set up Luscher’s touchdown pass to sophomore Mila Kosovich to open the scoring at 7-0 with around 5:30 left in the half.

“(The playbook has) opened up quite a bit,” Moore said. “The first couple months of the season was a lot of learning and building football skills, and now I feel like the playbook’s opening up and we’re going to go start scoring a lot of points.”

Added Luscher: “As the season’s gone on, I’ve gotten more comfortable with reads, reading the defense, trusting our receivers… It’s come a long way, and we’ve gone a long way. We’re catching the ball, making good reads, our defense is looking great. I just have a lot of hope for the rest of the season.”

The Seagulls’ opening touchdown drive started on their own one-yard line, with the defense forcing an incompletion on 4th-and-goal by Cascade on the previous drive. The Bruins entered Everett territory on each of their first two drives, but the Seagulls defense held them out of the end zone both times. As confident as Moore is in his offense’s progression, he feels equally good about the defense’s ability to shut down opposing teams.

Between switching players into different positions in order to find the best combination of personnel and preaching a ‘ball-hawking’ mentality, the Seagulls have managed to create more turnovers and allow fewer touchdowns compared to the early parts of the season, with Luscher calling it a “night and day” difference.

“I feel like we’ve learned to watch out for the other offense,” Yarwood said. “We’ve learned to hold our own.”

After Luscher connected with Yarwood to end the first half, the duo linked up again to cap the opening drive of the second half. Roberson carried the ball up to midfield on the first play, and Luscher got down to the 12-yard line on a scramble before a sack by Cascade senior Tahshara Elion pinned the offense back to the 20. Everett executed a hook-and-ladder play along the left sideline to Yarwood, but she stepped out of bounds before reaching the end zone. However, on fourth down, Luscher faded a pass to Yarwood in the back corner of the end zone, extending the lead to 21-0 with just under 16 minutes left.

The Seagulls defense forced another punt, and the offense kept rolling on a well-executed drive, capped by Kosovich rolling into the end zone after spinning away from multiple tacklers to make it 28-0 with 7:35 remaining. Yarwood stepped up on the following defensive drive with a tackle-for-loss and a pass breakup on back-to-back plays, but Cascade picked up some short gains before senior Nalani Douangmany-Turner caught a shovel pass from four yards out to get the Bruins on the board. Sophomore Averlyn Basilio connected with junior Kenzie Eke on the two-point conversion to cut it to 28-8 with two minutes left.

Cascade scored again a minute later, when sophomore Caylee Krestel took a handoff to the house on the first play following an Everett punt, but Seagulls senior Katelyn Chaussee intercepted the two-point attempt to leave it at 28-14. From there, Everett ran out the clock to secure the win.

The Seagulls are slated to face Monroe in the District 1 3A semifinals at Oak Harbor High School on Friday. The championship and loser-out consolation games will take place immediately after the semifinals, with the championship winner earning a state tournament berth and the loser facing the winner of the consolation game in a final win-and-in game on Saturday.

Everett is hoping the ‘BruGull’ Bowl is just the first title they pick up in the program’s first season.

“I think that it just really sets the tone for how far we’ve come this season,” Luscher said. “We kind of had a rough start to the season, and we’re coming out, we’re winning games, and I think it’s just really showing Everett as a community and the school as a whole that we’re here to play. We’re here to win, and it’s going to set up our program in the future to get more girls out and go win some more games.”