We Speak Flag / 7v7 Football
Perfect Season, State Crown: St. Charles North Runs the Table in Illinois
St. Charles North saved its best for the last day of the season. The North Stars beat Prospect 32-13 on Saturday, October 17, at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park to win the IHSA girls flag football state championship, completing a perfect 26-0 season and capturing the program’s first state title.
The championship game matched the state’s two best teams. Prospect arrived unbeaten as well, fresh off a 46-13 semifinal rout of Lyons, while St. Charles North had to dig out of a 14-0 hole against Marist in its semifinal before winning 27-13. In the final, the North Stars struck on their first offensive snap — a 57-yard touchdown run by senior Alexzandria Richardson — and never let go. Richardson finished the title game with 97 yards, three touchdowns and 10 flag pulls, leading the way on both sides of the ball as St. Charles North forced five turnovers.
Quarterback Kaelie Tomalak closed her career in style, throwing a touchdown pass, rushing for another score and grabbing an interception in the final. Days later, MaxPreps named the senior its 2026 Illinois Player of the Year, and the numbers explain why: 4,590 passing yards and 72 passing touchdowns against just five interceptions, plus 1,587 rushing yards and 18 more scores. On defense, she added 56 flag pulls and 15 interceptions, and she accounted for 1,623 yards and 21 touchdowns in seven playoff games alone.
“It’s the dream to win the state title,” Tomalak said after the win. “Especially in my senior year after having an early loss in the playoffs. It was something I was really driven toward.”
The weekend carried weight beyond the trophy. It was the third annual IHSA girls flag football state championship, with eight schools reaching the finals out of roughly 240 that fielded teams across Illinois this fall. The Chicago Bears, who helped build the sport in the state from a 21-team Chicago Public Schools league in 2021, were on site — Chairman George H. McCaskey worked the down marker and President and CEO Kevin Warren handled the coin flip before the St. Charles North quarterfinal.
Illinois sanctioned girls flag football in February 2024. Three seasons in, the North Stars just showed the whole state what the ceiling looks like.
Marana Makes Its Statement: A 17-0 Shutout of No. 2 Salpointe Catholic
Four Straight Finals, One Missing Trophy: Keiser’s Fall Is All About the Chase
Vestavia Hills Takes a 15-4 Record and a First-Round Bye Into the AHSAA 6A Playoffs
Eastmark’s Star Trio Is Chasing the 4A Title That Got Away
No. 2 Ohio State Heads to the Coliseum Without Its Quarterback as USC Plays Spoiler
Trap Game in Chapel Hill: No. 1 Miami Visits a North Carolina Team That Owns This Series
Cocktail Party Moves Indoors: No. 3 Georgia, No. 17 Florida Meet in Atlanta With SEC Stakes
Peterson and Harter Power The Classical Academy Past Vista Ridge for a Second Straight 4A Crown
The scoreboard at Salpointe Catholic said it plainly when the clock hit zero: Guests 17, Home 0. Underneath it, the Marana Tigers knelt in a circle on the Lancers’ field and soaked in the biggest win of their season.
Marana’s 17-0 shutout of Tucson rival Salpointe Catholic on Oct. 22 knocked the Lancers off the No. 2 perch in the USA TODAY Super 10 Arizona rankings and launched the Tigers from No. 8 to No. 4. Marana sits at 9-4, and its résumé suddenly looks like a contender’s: the Salpointe shutout, a shutout of Phoenix Xavier Prep earlier this month, and earlier blankings of Sunnyslope, 28-0, and Tucson High, 44-0.
This was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Marana opened the season without two-way star Malaysia Roebuck, and the Tigers had to learn how to play without her. Instead, sophomore quarterback Izzy Garcia has lit up the stat sheet, per The Arizona Republic, and the defense has become the identity of the team — four shutouts and counting.
It has not been a straight line. The same week Marana stunned Salpointe, the Tigers also lost 24-13 to Tempe Corona del Sol, a reminder of how thin the margins are in Arizona’s 6A gauntlet, where Campo Verde, Highland and Mountain Ridge all loom in the top five of the state rankings.
But statement wins travel. When the AIA 6A playoffs open, nobody in the bracket will look at Marana’s 9-4 record and relax — not after watching what the Tigers did to the state’s No. 2 team on its own field. The photo above is the moment the rest of Arizona got the message: Marana is not a spoiler. Marana is a problem.
Four Straight Finals, One Missing Trophy: Keiser’s Fall Is All About the ChaseVestavia Hills Takes a 15-4 Record and a First-Round Bye Into the AHSAA 6A PlayoffsEastmark’s Star Trio Is Chasing the 4A Title That Got AwayPeterson and Harter Power The Classical Academy Past Vista Ridge for a Second Straight 4A CrownNo. 2 Ohio State Heads to the Coliseum Without Its Quarterback as USC Plays SpoilerTrap Game in Chapel Hill: No. 1 Miami Visits a North Carolina Team That Owns This SeriesCocktail Party Moves Indoors: No. 3 Georgia, No. 17 Florida Meet in Atlanta With SEC Stakes
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