Kits Can't Chase Down Eventual Flag Champs

Katie Tomalak put up passing numbers for the St. Charles North flag football team this fall that would be the envy of any quarterback, even in the National Football League.

Her touchdown pass-to-interception ratio entering Friday's state quarterfinal matchup with Evanston was an astonishing 69-to-2.

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So how did the St. Charles senior beat the Wildkits? With her legs.

Tomalak found rushing lanes against the state's toughest defense and ended ETHS' season by posting a 27-12 victory at the Illinois High School Association state tournament finals held at Willowbrook High School.

Tomalak's touchdown runs of 8, 5 and 14 yards --- she totaled 111 yards on the ground on 18 carries --- made the difference for the eventual state champion North Stars, who went on to defeat Prospect 33-12 in the title game Saturday night in a matchup of unbeatens.

Evanston's second trip in three years to the Elite Eight produced the same result as in 2024, a quarterfinal loss to the eventual state champ. In fact, Evanston's first three varsity seasons in the sport have all culminated with a defeat against the team that went on to win it all.

That wasn't much consolation for the Wildkits, who established a school record for wins in a single season and finished 18-3.

It was also an end of an era for the Class of 2027, which chalked up 52 wins in three seasons but couldn't claim an elusive State trophy.

Tomalak was the reason the Kits fell short again. She took advantage of an ETHS defense that was limited by injuries to top pass rushers Camille Calixte and Nikki Dandelles and dazzled the losers with game-changing plays on the ground and through the air (17-of-20 passing for 122 yards and a TD).

Calixte was sidelined by a bad hamstring and wasn't able to play a single down. And Tomalak constantly beat Dandelles around the flanks as the Evanston senior tried her best but was limited by her knee injury.

Emma Reese scored on a 2-yard run for the Wildkits and KyNia Hunt converted an 86-yard catch-and-run from sophomore quarterback Ava Bellis for the losers' other score. Bellis was smacked in the hand by the St. Charles pass rush in the second quarter, and seemed to have trouble gripping the ball after that, completing just 10-of-21 attempts for 155 yards in the second half.

"There's a reason she's (Tomalak) an All-State quarterback. We couldn't pull a flag on her, and that's the story of the day," said Evanston head coach Carlton Rosemond.

"We gave up two big plays to her on fourth down and our offense was not what we needed it to be, either. I'll never put it on our defense to say they let us down --- but we missed a lot of flags today. We were in position to pull flags against their quarterback, but she kept her feet moving and, every time we needed a stop, she was able to get a first down with her legs.

"We were down two rushers and at one point we gave up a TD on fourth and 16. Those are the plays that really hurt you."

Tomalak, a southpaw, drove the North Stars 86 yards in 12 plays to start the game and the drive climaxed with her 9-yard touchdown pass to Adeline Shook. Shook also grabbed the PAT pass and that left Evanston in chase mode the rest of the way.

Evanston answered by consuming most of the game clock in the second quarter. A roughing the passer call that shook Bellis up negated what would have been a 90-yard return for a score on an interception, and on the next play Reese raced into the end zone from the 2.

Bellis' pass to Hunt for the PAT, however, fell incomplete.

Bellis (22-of-37 for 175 yards overall with three interceptions) tossed a pick to Tomalak on the sixth play of the second half, setting up the winners for an easy score as Tomalak carried three times for the 37 yards required to make it 13-6.

Tomalak added another TD run with 1:14 remaining in the third quarter and also ran in the extra point.

"That's the best team we've played all year," Rosemond conceded. "They're well-coached, the most disciplined team we've faced. They had a great defensive plan against us. They forced Ava to have to think more and we couldn't make the throws we needed to make.

"We won the sectional championship again and this was still a successful season. I'm proud of the girls. It just didn't end the way we wanted it to. We had a really tough road together when you think about how we had to play against our rival (New Trier), a Taft team ranked in the top 10 and a Maine South team ranked in the top 10 before coming up against the No. 2 team in the country (St. Charles).

"All we could do against teams like that was fight, and our fight wasn't enough today."

It wasn't the happy ending seniors Hunt, Calixte, Dandelles, Reese, Brielle Rosemond, Tariah McLendon, Adaoma Udoku, Mikayla Sewell, Katie Lindsay-Ryan and Meri Croft were hoping for.

"52 wins in three years? This was a special senior class," said Rosemond. "They set the bar for what we're supposed to be as a program going forward. I'm proud of the way they represented this program. Hopefully, the girls we have coming back next year will take on that mantle."