Penelope Pace named N.J. Flag Football Player of the Year

Penelope Pace turned Ridgewood’s 2025-26 season into a two-way showcase, then finished it as New Jersey’s top player. The junior quarterback and pass rusher was named the 2026 N.J. Flag Football Player of the Year after accounting for 71 total touchdowns and steering the Maroons to a 17-1 record.

The numbers tell the story of why Pace separated herself from a crowded field of elite candidates. NJ.com’s stat page lists her with 2,396 passing yards and 48 passing touchdowns, plus 1,258 rushing yards and 22 rushing touchdowns. It was the first time in her career that she topped 2,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season, a blend of production that forced defenses to account for her as a passer, runner and backfield threat on every snap.

Ridgewood’s team totals show how much Pace drove the offense. The Maroons finished with 54 passing touchdowns and 31 rushing touchdowns, and their only loss came in the most dramatic game of the year. On June 10, 2026, at Kean University in Union, Bayonne rallied from a 19-0 deficit to beat Ridgewood 20-19 in the North/Central final, ending Ridgewood’s 41-game winning streak. Bayonne’s winning points came on a two-point conversion pass from Taleiyah Smith to Camryn Pipher, and Pace still produced three total touchdowns in the loss.

That championship game also framed the margin between Ridgewood’s dominance and Bayonne’s surge. Ridgewood had beaten Bayonne 12-0 in the 2025 North/Central final, and the rematch flipped the result in the final minutes. Pace remained central to both versions of that rivalry, but her season was bigger than one outcome: it was built on the sort of weekly stress that made Ridgewood look inevitable until Bayonne finally broke through.

Pace’s rise also carried a human edge inside Ridgewood’s program. Head coach Mickey McDermott, who also coaches the Jets Elite Girls Flag Football Club Travel Team, sent her a scripture about anxiety as she prepared for her first playoff start at quarterback last season. That trust showed up in Pace’s poise this spring, as she balanced command of the offense with the pressure of playing quarterback and rusher for one of the state’s most loaded teams.

Her award arrives as girls flag football has raced from pilot project to sanctioned varsity sport in New Jersey. The New York Jets and Nike launched the state’s first girls flag football pilot league in 2021, the Jets later said more than 140 high schools fielded teams statewide by 2026, and New Jersey sanctioned the sport as an official high school varsity sport in May 2026. Ridgewood has been the standard through that rise, and Pace was the engine.