Pembroke Pines Charter’s Ava Rivera is the Broward Flag Football Player of the Year

Pembroke Pines Charter burst into title contention this year in flag football, so much so that the Jaguars even surprised themselves.

“We made a name for ourselves,” Ava Rivera said.

Rivera did, too. The junior finished sixth in the state in passing yards, led Pembroke Pines Charter to its first ever appearance in a state title game and is now the Miami Herald’s Broward County Flag Football Player of the Year.

Rivera, who plays both quarterback and some defensive back, went 388 of 519 for 4,424 yards, 61 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, and added for 184 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries in her first season as the Jaguars’ starting quarterback.

With Rivera as the trigger for Pines Charter’s offense, two Jaguars topped 1,000 receiving yards and four others topped 500. Four different players caught at least 10 touchdowns for Pines Charter and the Jaguars reached the Class 1A championship.

“I feel like we wouldn’t have made it if it weren’t for our receivers,” Rivera said. “Even though I knew I could get the ball to them, they made the catch.”

Before this season, Pines Charter had never even been past the region semifinals and the Jaguars got shut out in the region semis in each of the previous three seasons.

This year, Pembroke Pines won its first six postseason games by 144 combined points to reach its final four in Tampa, where it knocked of Choctawhatchee before falling to perennial powerhouse Tampa Robinson in the title game.

“When we made it to Tampa, that was my favorite part of the season,” Rivera said.

Rivera threw four touchdown passes in the 1A semifinal, but the Jaguars lost athlete Madison Ojeda, one of their two 1,000-yard receivers, to an injury and Pines Charter’s historic run ended just short of a state championship.

Only a junior, Rivera will have a chance to get the Jaguars over the hump. After all, they did more than most anyone else did against Robinson. In the title game, Pines Charter scored the first points against Knights in more than a month.