Kyia Wing was the Lambert softball team's secret weapon on the basepaths this fall.
A pinch-runner with track speed, flag football coach Brian Daughtery used Wing's skill on the gridiron Wednesday as the Longhorns topped South Forsyth 19-7 to improve to 5-1 overall.
"We all know she's a track star, so we're trying to get some of that speed on the field," Daughtery said.
QB Ava Falite threw three touchdown passes — two to Kennedy Dean and one to Karlie Cabrera — helping Lambert open Area 6 play with a victory.
Falite's first TD pass was a deep ball to Dean to give the Longhorns a 6-0 lead.
South answered immediately as QB Ashley Chu dazzled with her rushing ability, then found a wide-open Mya Wende and threw a short touchdown pass to Cameron Brock, who also caught the conversion to give the War Eagles a 7-6 lead.
Chu also had a first-half interception.
"We knew we had to handle her," Daughtery said of Chu. We knew we had to make sure we knew where she was lined up. We kind of gameplanned to make sure she didn't beat us. She was going to have to make someone else beat us."
Lambert added 13 unanswered points after halftime, first on a 21-yard TD pass from Falite to Cabrera.
South had seven minutes to respond, and the War Eagles reached Lambert territory after back-to-back runs by Chu and a couple of catches by Josie Crossman, but Caylen Tallis picked off a pass to hand the ball back to the Longhorns.
Cabrera took the ball down to the goal line, and after a couple of runs by Wing, Falite hit Dean again in the final seconds to put the game out of reach. Delaney Hill caught the conversion to make it 19-7.
Falite stepped into the QB role at the beginning of the season after CC Phillips suffered a knee injury.
"Ava has made great decisions at quarterback," Daughtery said. "She finds the open receiver, she runs when she needs to run and she's been a leader for our offense. She's been incredible. She's stepped up and filled that role nicely."
Forsyth Central and North Forsyth also collected wins, as the Bulldogs knocked off last year's state champions 6-0 and the Raiders earned their first win of the season over Denmark, 21-12.
Central [7-3-1, 2-0 Area 6] scored early on a TD pass from Katie Robbins to Sarah Pipping, and the Bulldogs' defense made the lead stick.
Central's defense pressured West's offense for much of the game. The Bulldogs had a chance in the final minutes of the game to pad their lead, but a fourth-and-goal pass from Robbins to Pipping fell incomplete, which gave West the ball with two minutes left.
A big third-down pass from Sara Lemley to Maren Parker brought the ball around midfield, but a tackle for loss by Ana Iglesias with 35 seconds left and another stop behind the line by Sophia Engstrom with 28 seconds left thwarted the Wolverines' comeback attempt.
West's Katelyn Miller made a tackle in the first half to prevent Central's conversion, while Emma Anderson collected four stops behind the line.
Lauren Fields used her legs and her arm to grant North [1-5, 1-1 Area 6] an early 14-0 lead over Denmark. First, Fields took off on a 30-yard TD run, weaving through the Danes' defense to find the end zone. Then Fields found Monica Tripp in the back of the end zone to give the Raiders a two-possession lead.
Fields connected with Tripp again in the second half, as Tripp caught the ball on a slant and sprinted up the middle of the field into the end zone.
Samantha Pixley had a pair of touchdown passes for the Danes, first finding Aubrey Chester to make it a 14-6 game. Pixley then lofted an impressive 22-yard TD pass to Jordan Williams to cut the deficit to 21-12 late in the second half.
Carinne Tzurdecker also had an interception for the Danes.