Defense Delivers As Kits Hand Young First Flag Defeat

Tariah McLendon played flag football as a freshman at Evanston, then opted to join some of her friends and try out for Pom Kits.

Now she’s back in the flag program --- and the Wildkits are glad to have her back.

McLendon’s first interception of the year kept Whitney Young off the scoreboard on the Dolphins’ first possession of the game Saturday, and the Wildkits knocked off previously unbeaten Young 19-0 in a non-conference battle in Chicago.

Evanston’s victory climaxed one of the best weekends in the short history of the program to date, coming less than 24 hours after a win over defending state champion Fremd. Like Evanston, Young (10-1) reached the Elite Eight last year and returns the bulk of that roster again this fall.

The Wildkits, now 8-1 overall, also recorded interceptions by KyNia Hunt and Ella Martin and kept the Dolphins out of the red zone. On offense, quarterback Maggie Conforti shook off a total of six sacks to throw TD passes to Camille Calixte (50 yards), Hunt (8 yards) and Brielle Rosemond (5 yards) for the winners.

The back-to-back wins over a couple of state powers will certainly help build his team’s resume when the sectional tournament seeding takes place. ETHS head coach Carlton Rosemond made it a point to put together the best schedule possible so it would be impossible for sectional coaches to seed the Wildkits 7th, like they did a year ago.

“I felt like this was a make or break weekend for us coming into it,” said Rosemond. “Those were two great wins for us, but we still have a lot of work to do. We’ve got to remain hungry and we’ve got to get better going forward. My motivation for playing all of these top teams is that, if we believe WE’RE a top team --- and we do --- we want to measure ourselves against other teams. And even if we lose, then we learn what we’ve got to work on to get better.

“Now we’ve proved that we belong. We’re in a different lane now than we were in last year. People know now that they have to keep their eyes on Evanston. This year we’re on everyone’s radar, and we’ve become the hunted instead of the hunter.”

McLendon’s decision to resume her flag career has helped the Wildkits develop more depth on defense than they had a year ago. Saturday, her theft on fourth down and 40-yard return kept the host team off the board and they never got close again.

“Our defense was just dominant today,” Rosemond praised. “They were really locked in and they really stepped forward.

“I had Tariah when I was an assistant coach for the JV team. I know she put in a lot of work this summer to get better and that play she made was really a game-changer for us. She’s become a really, really good corner for us.”