JEFFERSON — Hannah Francis had celebrated 16 birthdays before Thursday, but the Jefferson sophomore said none compares with the festivities that took place in Jefferson’s 2-1 Division II sectional championship victory against Lakeview.

“Definitely, my best birthday,” she said with a smile.

And why not? After all, if driving in the tying run, scoring what proved to be the winning run and making a fine play to end it with the game on the line isn’t enough, what is?

“This works just fine,” she said with another smile.

There were smiles aplenty for all who bleed red, white and black on this day, a day in which the Northeastern Conference co-leading and second-seeded Falcons made it back-to-back sectional titles for the first time since coach Ed Pickard’s squads did so in 1995 and 1996. Jefferson advances to take on Canfield in a district semifinal on Tuesday at the JAGS Complex.

“That was a very, very good game,” Jefferson coach Paul Bodnar said. “We did the things that were necessary to put us in position to win it.”

Francis celebrated her 17th birthday in grand style for Jefferson (17-5) with a lot of help.

Trailing 1-0, she drove in Megan Gochneaur with a clutch two-out single to right to tie the game in the third and led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk. She was sacrificed to second by her sister, Courtney, a Division I signee with St. Francis, and one out later, Indiana Tech signee Callie Busch dropped a bloop single to short center, scoring Hannah Francis.

“I just wanted to make sure I put it in play,” Busch said. “I wanted to make them make a play. I didn’t hit it hard, but I hit it square, but I saw the shortstop going out and the center fielder charging hard and I wasn’t sure it would fall in there.”

Hannah Francis, though, wasn’t waiting around to find out.

“I just put my head down and ran,” she said. “When I rounded third and didn’t hear a bunch of cheering from the Lakeview dugout, so I figured it was down.”

Bodnar said that inning is a perfect example of how his squad has been playing since it dropped a depressing 6-0 verdict at Edgewood exactly two weeks ago to the day.

“Hannah works for the walk, Courtney gets the bunt down and Callie comes through with a clutch hit,” he said. “That’s how you draw it up. It’s great to see the girls execute like that.”

Which was just what ace pitcher Kari Rouzer needed... and deserved.

Early on, it appeared the Bulldogs were in line to advance, especially when junior cleanup hitter Lex Sidley crushed the first pitch she saw leading off the top of the second for a home run off Rouzer to straightaway center. The ball landed a good 25 feet past the 200-foot fence for Sidley’s second homer of the season.