With just 15 minutes left in the second half of Tuesday’s IHSA Kankakee Regional semifinal, Yorkville trailed host Kankakee by seven and had not scored since the opening possession of the game.

But the Foxes mounted a lightning-fast drive, spanning 86 yards in a little over 90 seconds, that resulted in a 32-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brooke Ekwinski to Kayla Kersting. That touchdown started a run of 20 unanswered points scored by the Foxes in a 26-13 win, a win that put them in a regional championship game for the second straight season.

Ekwinski connected with her fellow senior Kersting seven times for 183 yards and three touchdowns on Thursday. The pair also found each other on a two-point conversion that put the Foxes up 20-13 following a 24-yard touchdown between them that gave Yorkville the lead for good.

“With Kayla, I just throw the ball up and hope she’s there,” Ekwinski said. “Most of the time, she is. She’s pretty good.”

Ekwinski also hit Annabel West for a dagger 3-yard touchdown two plays after the Yorkville defense forced a turnover on downs with 3:38 to go, turning a one-score lead into the 26-13 final score.

Yorkville head coach Clarissa Cooper said she thought the team took a little while to find their legs after a long trip down to Kankakee, but once they did, they managed to play like she knows they can.

“I think the first half started a little bit slow,” she said. “...But at halftime, we told them ‘it’s 6-6, 0-0, however you want to think about it. We’ve got to play our game. We’re seeded No. 2, and we’ve just got to play like we’re No. 2.’”

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Girls Flag Football - IHSA Kankakee Regional: Kankakee vs. Yorkville Yorkville's Kayla Kersting reaches out to score a touchdown as Kankakee's Jasyia Wesby, left, and London Stroud attempt to stop her during the Foxes' 26-13 victory over Kankakee on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Tiffany Blanchette/Tiffany Blanchette)

For the Foxes, Tuesday’s win was also a step back in the right direction. They had gone 2-3 to close out the regular season after going 10-1 to open the year.

“We were kind of in a slump,” Kersting said. “I think this was a really telling game, for us to come back and show everyone who were really are and come out of that slump. Our main goal right now is to make history for YHS, and that’s a regional championship.”

Yorkville will be back in a familiar spot in Thursday’s title game, having taken a tough 14-12 loss to Schaumburg in last year’s regional championship. The Foxes will also face a familiar foe in an Oswego team that beat Joliet West 13-6 in Thursday’s second semifinal game. The Foxes beat the Panthers 41-0 back on Sept. 10.

The loss for Kankakee ended its quest for a second straight regional title and snapped a three-game winning streak. Quarterback London Stroud ran 21 times for 167 yards and also threw a pair of touchdown passes, both to Lamaryah Smith.

The Kays were left shorthanded with both Trinity Noble and Jasiah Hawkins out with injuries, which head coach Marques Lowe made things a bit harder on the defense.

“We fought through a lot of adversity today,” he said. “We’re down two of our best defenders, so that kind of weighed on us a little bit. They came up and tried to suit up, but they just couldn’t play in the end.”

The Kays will lose four seniors heading forward in Noble, Taniyah Sherman, Ausrielle Curry and Damariana Tooles. But for the large number of players expected back for year three of the program in 2026, Lowe said he wants to see the program continue to build and grow.

“It’s still a learning process, and it’s still learning the game,” he said. “...Hopefully we get some more girls out. We started out with a deeper team, and then it kind of went down a little towards the end. But we’re hoping we can continue to build the program up and get it to a higher level, get some more numbers and come out with a different level of intensity next year.”