Kit Girls Overcome Injuries, Keep Win Streak Alive

Carlton Rosemond didn’t sign on as Evanston’s head flag football coach just to try to help his talented daughters --- KyNia Hunt and Brielle Rosemond --- earn a state championship before they graduate this year.

Rosemond wants to build a program. And the Wildkits showed Saturday that they’ll still be a force to be reckoned with after Hunt and Rosemond leave.

Down four starters with injuries, the Kits still had enough depth to deliver a pair of wins Saturday at Lazier Field against Mother McAuley (13-6) and Butler College Prep (27-6) and extended their winning streak to eight in a row.

The injury bug hit ETHS hard this week and there aren’t many programs that could deal with the loss of their starting quarterback (Ava Bellis), a starting linebacker (Harper Wesenberg) and an All-State candidate (Hunt) in a span of 24 hours.

Both Bellis (hand) and Wesenberg (concussion) were sidelined in the second quarter of Friday’s 19-6 win over Lane Tech in the City-Suburban Classic event at ETHS.

That was bad enough. On Saturday, Hunt collided with her sister while trying to prevent a score by McAuley and limped off the field with an ankle problem.

The good news? All three standouts are expected back next week.

Even better news? The way recently promoted varsity newcomers like junior Mylani Velasquez and freshman Aniyah Jackson stepped up, along with backup quarterback Ella Martin, as Evanston improved to 12-1 on the season.

Bellis hurt her hand on the follow through of a pass attempt versus the Lane pass rush and injured the same hand that sidelined her for the last couple of weeks of last season. The sophomore standout is on a record-setting pace as a passer this fall and Kit fans expected the worst without her calling the plays.

But Martin rose to the occasion in her absence by completing a total of 55 passes in 78 attempts for a total of 476 yards and 6 touchdowns in the doubleheader sweep.

“The MVP of the day is definitely Ella Martin,” Coach Rosemond declared. “Ella is whatever we need her to be (safety, punter, QB, screener). I don’t usually like to have my quarterback also playing safety, but we needed her today on defense, too.

“Yesterday we just weren’t prepared for it when Ava went down so our offense was kinda vanilla in the second half. Today we were able to adjust and open up a little more on offense. Ella is a different type of quarterback than Ava. We got a little more creative and we didn’t want her to feel she had to put the ball in harm’s way a lot. Today was just about surviving.”

Martin didn’t come off the field much Saturday. She did get a break on defense, helping herself with second half scoring passes to Ava Saclati (5 yards), Claire Auger (8 yards) and Tariah McLendon (22 yards) as the Wildkits broke the game open after leading 7-6 at halftime against Butler in the finale of the round-robin.

The ETHS defense surrendered an 82-yard sprint for a score by Butler quarterback Latrice Hill. But on 18 carries after that, Hill netted a minus 1 yard thanks partly to a yeoman effort from Velasquez.

The smallest player on the field --- she’s not close to 5 feet tall --- came up big for the hosts. She recorded at least six pulls (tackles) for losses and spooked Hill into also yielding a safety when she fumbled in her own end zone late in the third quarter.

Velasquez, a junior, moved up to the varsity earlier in the week to bolster Evanston’s pass rush.

“Mylani is a real firecracker out there,” Rosemond praised. “She worked hard and did everything she could to be on the varsity this year. She’s really worked hard to be the best she can be. But I wanted her to play, not sit behind some of the other girls, so we left her on the junior varsity.

“We were able to give her a couple opportunities at the varsity level earlier this week, and today, she was really huge for us.”

Jackson, a lanky freshman, contributed 4 catches for 21 yards overall and definitely caught the eye of the coaching staff for the future.

“When you get your opportunity, you do the best you can with what you know how to do,” Rosemond said. “I really want to build a good program here and watching some of these girls step up was a joy to see. It lets me know this program will be alright after this year.

“Injuries can creep up on you during the season but thankfully, none of these were season-ending injuries. We needed to be able to battle through some adversity and lean on players who don’t normally play this much, and we did that this weekend.”

In Saturday’s opener against McAuley, Hunt hooked up with her new QB with 10 catches for 98 yards, including an 11-yard TD. Martin connected with Brie Rosemond for a 2-yard scoring strike that proved to be the game-winner.

Pairings for postseason play were released by the Illinois High School Association on Friday and Evanston earned the No. 2 seed behind defending state champion Maine South at the ETHS Sectional tourney. South drew the top seed despite its five regular season losses.

The two state powers could meet in the sectional finals on Monday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at Lazier Field.

The Wildkits will compete first at the New Trier Regional and will open against either Rickover Naval Academy or Amundsen on Oct. 5 at New Trier at 4 p.m.