Kayla Kersting did not even know the flag football overtime rules before Tuesday.

Her Yorkville teammates, in fact, were facing the wrong way at first in extra time.

As for the emotions of the moment?

Leave it to Kersting, a Yorkville senior and Iowa softball commit, to come up with an analogy from her spring sport of choice.

“That’s like bottom of the seventh, tie game,” Kersting said.

Brooke Ekwinski and Kersting, coincidentally also softball teammates, connected for the walk-off win.

Ekwinski, Yorkville’s senior quarterback, connected with Kersting for a scoring pass in the back of the end zone to beat visiting Geneva in a 27-26 thriller.

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Yorkville's Brooke Ekwinski (18) smiles after scoring a touchdown against Geneva during a non-conference game at Yorkville High School on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (Sean King for Shaw Local News Ne)

Yorkville (3-0) led 18-0 in the first half, and 26-12 with 4:32 left in regulation after Ekwinski’s 1-yard touchdown run and conversion pass to Annabel West.

Geneva tied it with 42 seconds left in regulation on Linnea Popp’s TD pass to Frances Rose Myszkowski and conversion pass to Ella Wilkison to force overtime.

“I was a little bit stressed to be honest, but it’s fun,” Ekwinski said. “A lot of pressure but it’s good.”

Geneva got it first in overtime. Under flag football overtime rules, the Vikings had the choice of one play from the 3-yard line for one point, or a play from the 10-yard line for two points.

They chose the latter.

Popp appeared to find a receiver in the right corner of the end zone, but she was ruled out of bounds.

“We thrive on being aggressive. We know what we’re capable of,” Geneva coach Kaleigh O’Brien said. “On any given day that call goes our way. Proud of my kids for fighting back.”

Yorkville went for a point from the 3-yard line on the ensuing possession. Ekwinski, with all day to throw, found Kersting streaking toward the center of the end zone.

“A busted play,” Kersting said. “I wasn’t even the first target. It was Annabel. She was on me, I cut back, she tipped it.”

Kersting, an All-State softball player and catcher for Yorkville softball’s 2023 state runner-up as a freshman, only played three flag football games last fall in the first year of the IHSA-sanctioned sport before going down with an ankle injury.

Coming back out for the sport was an easy call. Super speedy for a catcher, kid sister of a former Yorkville football star and daughter of an assistant football coach at Oswego, Kersting is a natural for the sport.

She had nine catches for 133 yards and a 25-yard touchdown Tuesday.

“I talked to my coaches at Iowa, there are a lot of benefits to playing multiple sports,” Kersting said. “Move, cut different, stay in shape and it’s being around a team atmosphere. It’s fun.”

Ekwinski, who also plays basketball and softball and will play the latter collegiately at Saint Xavier, is in her second season as Yorkville’s quarterback.

She threw for 210 yards Tuesday, and also showed off her running skills with a 50-yard TD run.

“Basketball helped a lot with that,” Ekwinski said.

“She’s a triple threat,” Kersting added.

Ekwinski’s 10-yard TD pass to West made it 18-0, and Grace Niles’s interception on the second to last play of the first half kept it there.

Geneva (0-2), in its first season of flag football, rallied in the second half. Popp threw a 12-yard TD pass to Alyssa Flotte, scored on a 1-yard run and connected with track star Flotte for a 53-yard score.

“I have been trying to find a connection with her. We played basketball together and stuff,” Popp said. “I know she’s an incredible athlete. Get it to her, and she can take it 100 yards.”

Popp threw for 305 yards for Geneva, which was playing its second game. It’s also her second, but Popp has plenty of experience throwing the football around Thanksgiving weekends.

“Popp is someone, never played before, she walks out and has some confidence and brings our team some swag,” O’Brien said. “When she is on, we’re on. She makes things happen.”

Popp is one of 62 girls out for flag football in Geneva’s first season playing the growing sport.

“We didn’t know how many kids we would have,” O’Brien said. “Late winter we saw the numbers getting higher and higher and we knew we’d have a good turnout.”