CRANBERRY TWP — North Catholic needed a kicker. Rylee Kumer needed a challenge.

So the two found each other.

“Our kicker from last year (Ethan Marsico) graduated,” Trojan football coach Patrick O’Shea said. “Rylee approached us in February about trying out for the team as our kicker. I could tell how serious she was.

“We told her she could give it a shot.”

Then she was around all the time.

Rylee put in the weight room work every day. She worked out with the team during the summer. She practiced kicking a football on her own time.

“I grew up in a football family,” said Rylee, an Ambridge resident and North Catholic junior. “We’re all big football fans. It’s something I always wanted, to be a part of a football team.

“I wasn’t sure if it was gonna happen, but when I saw last year’s kicker had graduated, I figured ... why not try?”

But she is also the starting goalkeeper on the Trojanettes soccer team. She’s been a soccer player for 12 years. And she had surgery on both knees last year — for a torn meniscus on her left, arthroscopic on her right.

“When Rylee told us she wanted to kick football, I admit, I was nervous,” Brandy Kumer, her mother, said. “Those boys are so much bigger than her and she was coming off those knee surgeries.

“But as parents, we’re not going to discourage our children from doing anything they want to do. We were willing to let her go for it and see where the cards fell.”

Rylee stands only 5-foot-6 and weighs 130 pounds.

It didn’t take O’Shea long to see how serious Rylee was about playing both sports.

“During heat acclimation week, she was with us at 9 a.m. and went through all the football drills. It was close to 90 degrees,” the coach said. “After that, she went over to soccer practice for two hours. Our teams were practicing right next to each other.

“After that, she came back over to football and kicked for another 30 minutes. She’s totally committed to this. She’s one of us. She’s one of 50 players on this team and has earned everybody’s respect.”

Riley admitted she was nervous when she first talked to the football coach. By totally including herself in all of the off-season football preparation, she said she gained support of the other players.

What she had to do was adjust to the difference between playing football and soccer — and mentally get past the aftermath of her knee surgeries.

“Definitely a mental block there,” she said of getting back on the athletic field. “It wasn’t just football. I throw myself at attacking players in soccer as the goalkeeper and there’s the chance someone could bump my knee.

“But I couldn’t let any fears like that get in the way of doing something I love. And I love playing sports.”

Rylee described her acclimation to football as “a long process.”

“I walked over to empty fields near our house and just started kicking,” she said. “Through the weight room and all my practice, my leg got stronger. The helmet and shoulder pads? Definitely different, but I got used to it.”

Getting the approval of first-year North Catholic girls soccer coach D.J. Sharpless was critical to the process as well.

“It was a choice she made,” Sharpless said. “Rylee is an all-section goalkeeper. I was nervous about it because I didn’t want any football kid coming into her while trying to block a kick. Football’s a tough sport, so I’m a little uncomfortable about it.

“But Rylee wanting to venture into something new — I love that. I have four daughters myself. All four of my kids play soccer. I want them to feel free to go after what they want in life, so I want Rylee to feel the same way.”

Rylee attends practice for both sports each day. On soccer game days, she practices football first, then gets ready for the game.

And while there’s one other kicker on North Catholic’s roster, it was Rylee who got the nod to kick from placement during the Trojans’ 37-14 season-opening win at Serra Catholic. She was successful on all five of her PATs.

It marked the first time North Catholic football ever used a female kicker.

“I was so nervous when I first went out there,” Rylee confessed. “My teammates were great. They said, ‘you got this. You’re gonna kill it.’ I felt their support. I feel like, from the 30-yard-line on in, I can kick it through consistently.”

O’Shea said his special teams coach told him before the game “she’s good from 25 yards in. If Riley said from 30 yards in, I believe it.

“She earned the start. She’s our kicker right now. Her jump in the air after kicking that first extra point was one of my five most memorable moments coaching football. It’s why we do this.”

Rylee won’t soon forget the moment herself.

“Being part of the team, seeing the crowd go crazy, the atmosphere out there on Friday night ... it just felt so special,” she said. “I’m learning how to tackle and what to do in certain situations. That’s all part of it.

“I’m hoping to play soccer in college. It’s No. 1 for me. Now I’m a football player, too. I love it.”