No. 7 Palo Verde beat No. 10 Horizon Honors 31-0 to open up the first round of the 3A playoffs Tuesday night at home and the victory was remarkable for several reasons. The Titans started out 1-13 in 2024 with a program built on inner-city athletes who showed up for every game despite only scoring 30 points all season. They came to play. They came to learn.

“I was a part of the first the first season in program history,” Palo Verde head coach Danny Hunt said. “We went one and 13, then last summer was huge for us. So every girl we have, they played with us over summer and they just took a huge step, and they believe in themselves, and our thing here is compete every play. Don't fall in love with flag football or basketball. Fall in love with competing, and we do that every day.”

The Titans went 4-9 last year and one could see the improvement on the scoreboard, built on the same fight. This year, Palo Verde finished the regular season with an 11-2 record, a region championship and a home game in the state playoffs. Now 12-2, the Titans have already beaten the house and are playing loose with a trip to the quarterfinal round, where the team will travel to No. 2 Benjamin Franklin (14-3) on Saturday.

Horizon Honors finished the year with a 9-4 record with the second playoff appearance in the two years the program has been in competition. The Eagles beat Palo Verde 11-7 in 2025 but the Titans beat Horizon Honors 32-7 on the road in the regular season to help set up the match Tuesday night.

The Titans were led by junior standout Caleena Blackburne who ended the night with four touchdowns and an interception. Her first touchdown was set up by a 38-yard rush from Esteri Susana and Blackburne followed that up with a 15-yard run and then a run from up close to put the Titans up 6-0 with 4:52 left in the first quarter.

Blackburne showed off a bit of her receiving skills later with an 18-yard pass from Kylee Ellison, followed by a 17-yard pass to move the ball down the field. 15-yard run from Susana help set up another score from Blackburn to make it 12-0 with 9:27 left in the half.

In the final moments of the third quarter, a 50-yard pass from Ellison to Blackburne made it 19-0 and then Blackburne came up with an interception to help set up her fourth touchdown to make it 25-0 with 9:35 left in the game. Fellow junior Sophia Ravonu came up big moments later with an interception return for the 31-0 final.

“It honestly feels good,” Blackburne said. “Some of us weren't really expecting us to come this far, but like it's honestly a very like big relief because these last four years we were never this high up into the seed. So it actually feels very different, a type of overwhelming, but it's not really overwhelming. It's like a good type of overwhelming.”

Franklin made it to the 3A semifinal round last year so the task ahead might prove to be difficult for the Titans.

“If you look at our record, we're 12 and two now, and one of our losses, we didn't have two of our starters that game so we feel like we're a very powerful team too, and we feel like we're really overlooked,” Hunt added. “We're here to compete. We're here to compete, and that's what we want to do and in order to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

The Titans lost at No. 4 Seton Catholic Prep 26-6 to start the season off and the other loss was a 7-6 setback at No. 5 Highland Prep on Oct. 15.

“I would say some of us took them early mornings to come and do that one on one time with Coach,” Blackburne added. “Most of us were dedicated all summer, just putting in the work, just wanting to see each other grow. A lot of us have been on the team for about the four years that flag football has been around, and some of them just you know got the experience, but many of them are very dedicated to the team and really want to go far with this sport.”