Win or lose, Evanston’s 2024 season opener in girls flag football was certain to be a learning experience for first-year head coach Carlton Rosemond and his players.
What was Rosemond’s takeaway from a 20-6 loss at Maine South? That changes are going to be made on both sides of the ball.
Fans who made the trip to Park Ridge Wednesday for the season debut might not see the same team Friday night when the Wildkits play their home opener against Glenbrook South.
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“We knew we’d probably struggle on offense, because we’re still trying to figure some things out. But we also need to go back to the drawing board and figure out our defensive lineup,” Rosemond said. “We’re not who I thought we were. This is a loss we’ll learn from. We have a lot of time --- 20 more games --- to get better.”
“Maine South came into this game prepared. I thought we were prepared, but clearly we didn’t prepare well enough. We had a lot of missed flags (tackles) and a lot of missed assignments on defense.”
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Leading 8-0 at halftime, the Hawks burned the Wildkit defense with a 58-yard catch and run connection from quarterback Aribella Spandiary to Amelia Fernandez on the first play of the second half. Six plays after that, Spandiary found Emerson De La Cruz open for a short 2-yard TD pass.
The hosts put the game out of reach after an interception, on a 26-yard toss from Spandiary to Lourdes Bottari-Tower.
Evanston’s only score came with 3 minutes left in the contest when sophomore KyNia Hunt caught a deflected pass for a TD that covered 5 yards.
ETHS junior quarterback Maggie Conforti completed 13-of-25 passing attempts for 134 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Defensive highlights for the Kit girls included a quarterback sack by Camille Calixte in the first half, and a fourth down stop by Payton King that prevented a score by the Hawks later in that same drive.
