Romeoville’s historic flag football season comes to end with sectional semifinal defeat

RICHTON PARK – The Romeoville girls flag football season came to an end Tuesday evening at Rich Township High School with a 28-20 loss to Hillcrest in the sectional semifinals.

A historic end to a historic season.

This was the first year flag football was officially sanctioned by the IHSA. For schools that didn’t have club teams prior to this year – like Romeoville – it was all the more impressive they managed to find success.

Success is something the Spartans had plenty of as they finished the year 11-6, including a 40-6 regional semifinal win over Midlothian and a 14-12 regional championship victory over Bolingbrook. This was all from a team with just five seniors on the roster, including no senior starters on offense.

Quite a feat to achieve, helping to soften the blow of an unfortunate loss Tuesday.

“Our squad did a great job this year,” Romeoville coach Chaz Kuhn said. “It was our first year in existence, and by the end of the year it didn’t look like it. I’m super proud of everything that they’ve accomplished.

“My whole offense is coming back, though we’re losing some senior leaders that we’re going to miss. I feel like they taught the underclassmen enough to propel us into the next season.”

The Spartans also played a heck of a game Tuesday. They started with a 24-yard run by Milan Cadet and nine players later ended with a 1-yard run by Cadet into the end zone to give Romeoville a 6-0 lead seven minutes in.

Hillcrest, though, has been one of the best teams in the state this season. They needed just four plays to respond and take an 8-6 lead after Dajha Johnson hit Mia Rodriguez for a 17-yard scoring strike. After forcing Romeoville into a three-and-out, Hillcrest needed just three plays to secure a 20-yard touchdown pass from Johnson to Davia Cobb.

Romeoville was unable to answer before the halftime whistle sounded and entered the break down 14-6.

It looked like the Hawks would run away with it. Johnson hit Christiara Finley for a 5-yard touchdown to make it 22-6 with 16 minutes remaining. Cadet needed just one play to bounce off a few would-be tacklers and rumble 80 yards to the house to cut the deficit to 22-14 a minute later.

Following a stop by the Spartans defense, Cadet and quarterback Jenna Jarmus led the offense down the field and capped the drive off with a 1-yard shovel pass between the two to narrow things to just 22-20 with 10 minutes left.

Hillcrest looked as though they copy-and-pasted Cadet’s run the next play, however, as Farley ran 80 yards for a score to make it 28-20 with 8:37 to go. Romeoville got two more chances at it, but were unable to score and thus saw its season come to an end.

But what a season it was. Cadet had an outstanding final performance to her debut campaign with 170 rushing yards on just 10 carries and three total touchdowns. Jarmus was accurate as well, going 10-of-16 passing for 71 yards and a score with one interception.

That’s to say nothing of the phenomenal play and leadership provided by senior leaders like linebacker Maralyn Ruiz.

“I’m very proud of us,” Ruiz said. “It’s very sad with this being my senior year, but next year I’m going to watch them be even better. Things could have gone a different way, but we did our best, and I’m so proud of everyone for that. Everyone did everything they could, we played until the last moment, and I’m proud of that.

“I’m going to miss my girls, and I hope they don’t forget about me. I love these girls. They’re my family.”

Jarmus, a junior, echoed the sentiment. She also wanted the whole state to know the Spartans are just getting started.

“We’re going to come back next year and be even better,” Jarmus said. “The future is looking very strong. We’re going to come out and prove our place. We’re going to improve from our mistakes and come back even stronger.”