Opening its season last week, Orestimba High flag football couldn’t have asked for a better start for 2026.
The Warriors are off to a 4-0 start following dominant wins against Kimball, Riverbank, Lincoln and Ripon High Schools.
Orestimba won its opener against Kimball, 19-7, and won a six-team tournament over the weekend where they won by at least 20 points in each of three games played.
Junior quarterback Salece Machado continues her momentum from last season as she threw for 13 touchdowns through the four-game stretch. That was done in part of the play from senior athlete Imelda Beltran and receiver Natalie Corella, who both found a way to catch a pass regardless of the circumstance.
Whether it was a deep throw from their quarterback or heavily guarded by a defender, Beltran and Corella seemed poised enough to get a first down or touchdown. In Corella’s case, some of her catches came from the ball going directly towards her after it was tipped by a defender.
This certainly caught the attention of head coach John Labno, who said it was another trait that describes the team along with them being athletic. “Almost everybody up and down the roster can catch the ball pretty much at any time,” he said.
While Orestimba typically plays at Warrior Stadium, they had to resort to playing at the junior varsity’s baseball field in the season opener and Mary Beth Moorehead Memorial Baseball Field on Saturday due to ongoing renovations.
With wins against Riverbank and Lincoln, the Warriors played the tournament’s finale against Trans-Valley League foe, Ripon.
After not scoring in their first two drives, Machado found Beltran on a vertical route and threw a well-placed 25-yard pass to her for a 6-0 lead. The scoring didn’t stop there for the Warriors as on the ensuing possession, Ripon sophomore quarterback Ana Shriver’s pass was intercepted by senior defensive back Itzel Navarro for a pick six. The Warriors converted the extra point to lead 13-0 early in the first half.
It only got from bad to worse for Shriver as she threw another interception, this time to Beltran, who returned it for a pick six. Orestimba led 20-0 after scoring the extra point.
With momentum on their side, Machado threw a 25-yard pass towards Corella that ended up in her hands after the ball was deflected by a Ripon defender. That play characterized how the entire game went for Ripon.
As Orestimba made it to Ripon’s goal line, Machado scrambled and found senior receiver Jojo Perez unguarded in the endzone for a TD to lead 26-0 at the end of the first.
From that point, Orestimba extended its lead in the third quarter after Beltran’s third TD of the game, 32-0. Ripon later scored a TD at the end, but it wasn’t enough to suffice its deficit.
Despite losing 11 senior players from last year’s roster, it seemed the Warriors had a roster that’s been intact for several seasons with how well the team’s chemistry was displayed.
That cohesion was in large part of returning players stepping up as leaders and having newcomers buying in the team’s culture, Labno said. One of those newcomers is junior receiver Ellery Gustafson, who was on the school’s varsity volleyball team last year.
“We got a couple of girls, who come from volleyball, who never played flag football before, they’re playing big minutes for us,” Labno said. “They’ve done a great job stepping up [for] the girls who were here.”
The Warriors will travel to El Capitan High School for a non-league matchup on Monday for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
