Kayden Johnson said she expected a win in DeKalb’s first flag football game.

The senior receiver’s confidence was apparently well deserved in a 42-0 win over Belvidere on Friday.

“I’m not going to lie, I lowkey expected this a little bit. But that’s only because I’m a little cocky sometimes,” Johnson said. “I expected to win, but at the same time the adrenaline was kicking so a little scared. ‘Oh I don’t know, these girls might be good but then they might not. I’m just going to see.’ So we went on the field, did everything we’ve practiced and we did that. 42-0. I’m really proud of our team.”

The Barbs (1-0) dominated the Bucs (0-1) on both sides of the ball. Belvidere didn’t get a positive-yardage play until the second quarter and DeKalb scored on its first six possessions.

The Barbs fumbled their first punt return of the game, giving the Bucs an extra drive, but after that they started rolling. They started the drive on the Belvidere 26 thanks to the defense and got the first of three touchdown catches by Johnson from quarterback Angela Gary.

[ Photos: DeKalb girls flag football plays first game in program history against Belvidere ]

“She’s been my QB for a little minute,” Johnson said. “It’s like her throws always click. Every time it’s right there. I got the ball. She knows. It’s like we’ve got a good connection. Every time she throws the ball, I’m going to catch it unless it’s too far or something. But it’s going to land in my hand, we’re going to get a touchdown and we’re going to win.”

On the next Belvidere drive, Elora Slater came up with a fourth-down sack, setting up DeKalb on the Bucs’ 3-yard line. Dysenia Lopez hauled in a pass from Gary for the 12-0 lead.

Gary threw four touchdown passes and ran for a fifth. Kaylee Tenard had a defensive touchdown for the Barbs to close the scoring, returning an interception 82 yards for a score.

“She got her cardio in on that one,” said defensive coordinator Liz Ayala, filling in for head coach Cedric Little.

Tenard and Slater each had two interceptions in the win. Both of Slater’s came in the final three minutes of the first half, the first one setting up Gary’s 9-yard scramble for a score and a 26-0 lead.

Slater said she was pleased with how the first game went.

“We’ve been working hard and I feel like we finally got the hang of it,” Slater said. “It just clicked like that.”

Ayala said she liked the way her team came out strong out of the gates, especially defensively.

“We have girls that are ready for this,” Ayala said. “That first half, the execution of the girls, I couldn’t have planned it any better. We started messing with our other defense [in the second half] and that’s when we started getting kind of sloppy. But I’m not mad at that execution.”

The Barbs opened the second half facing a full field for the first time, starting as all drives after touchdowns or to start halves do on the far 14-yard line, facing a first and 6 - first downs are on the closest 20 or 40-yard line regardless of where the team starts with the ball.

After Gary hit De’Ayshia Killingsworth for a 14-yard gain, she found Johnson for a 72-yard gain and a 34-0 lead.

Tenard’s first interception ended a long Belvidere drive that reached the DeKalb 23. On the next Belvidere drive, she came up with the pick and put a tremendous juke on a receiver to elude the tackle and go for the long score.

“I love playing football. It’s so fun winning. I love winning,” Johnson said. “I was making touchdowns the whole game. It was just so much fun.”