A small Catholic school west of Topeka is refusing to play football against another team because one of the team’s players is a girl.

Kara Dowell, 14, is a guard on the White City Huskies’ junior-varsity team and possibly wouldn’t even have played Friday night in a game at St. Mary’s Academy in St. Marys. But when White City’s coach called St. Mary’s last week to make sure there was a separate changing room for Dowell, St. Mary’s Academy officials told the coach they didn’t play football with girls.

“It makes me kind of angry that we worked so hard for women’s rights and they won’t play a girl,” Kara said. “Girls have a right to do anything that a guy can do.”

Sid Tanner, principal at White City, began making follow-up calls to St. Mary’s to try to work something out, but eventually the game was called off.

“They wanted us to just not suit her up for that game, and we told them we wouldn’t do that,” Tanner said.

St. Mary’s is affiliated with the Society of Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic splinter group that opposes reforms that modernized the church in the 1960s. The rector of St. Mary’s, Father Vicente Griego, could not be reached for comment Wednesday, nor could the school’s athletic director

Officials who answered the phone at the society’s U.S. headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., referred questions to the campus in St. Marys. One man who answered the phone at headquarters but declined to give his name said it wasn’t feminine for a girl to play football and that it wouldn’t be chivalrous for boys to knock her down.

“I’m in football for a reason,” Kara said. “If I didn’t want to get hit, then I wouldn’t be in football.”

Tanner said the school’s main concern after getting the news was whether people in White City would be angry with Kara because of the cancellation. In a town of 500 people, a Friday night high school football game — even on the road — is a coveted event.

“Everybody’s just been really positive and supportive of her,” Tanner said.

Kara said team members told her she single-handedly won a game for the team. White City officials are considering it a forfeit, Tanner said.

Kara’s mother, Alice Dowell, said she was surprised but not angry that St. Mary’s backed out of the game.

“I am very proud of my daughter, and I’m proud of the White City Huskies for standing behind her and supporting her,” she said.