Seahawks win girls’ high school flag title on overtime catch

Mya Smith’s leaping catch just inside the end-zone line and the pylon ended a title game that lived on every snap, sending the Los Angeles Seahawks past the Austin Texans 15-14 in overtime to win the Girls’ High School crown at the 2026 NFL FLAG Championships in Westfield, Indiana. Ava Ortman had scrambled to her right and away from the rush before fitting the championship throw into a window that barely existed.

The finish gave the Seahawks, who represented the Seattle Seahawks, a win that looked and felt like elite football under pressure. One point separated the teams at the end, and the last play was as sharp as the margin was thin. Ortman kept the play alive long enough for Smith to separate at the goal line, and Smith finished the job with the kind of contested catch that can define a bracket.

That same Sunday slate produced a very different kind of championship statement in another division, where the Ocala Bucs rolled to the Boys’ U14 title. The contrast was stark: the girls’ high school final turned on a single overtime throw, while Ocala controlled its path with far less drama. Together, the two results showed how championship football can separate teams in different ways, by late-game execution in one game and by overwhelming command in another.

The 2026 event marked the third annual NFL FLAG Championships presented by Toyota, staged July 23-26 at the Droplight Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield. Championship games were played Sunday, July 26, on a 400-plus-acre complex with more than 30 multi-purpose fields, the first time the tournament had been held in the Indianapolis region. RCX Sports operated the event.

The scale matched the stage. NFL.com described the championships as the world’s premier youth flag football tournament and the largest youth flag football tournament in the world, with more than 350 girls’ and boys’ teams from across the United States and around the globe competing over four days. The field included club identities tied to all 32 NFL teams, with the Austin Texans representing the Houston Texans in the title game against the Seahawks.

That national footprint is part of why a play like Ortman’s mattered beyond one scoreboard. The NFL has tied the championships to flag football’s growth as the sport moves toward its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, and a final decided by a leaping catch at the pylon offered a clear snapshot of how sharp the top of the girls’ game has become.