By Miles Toogo- Photos by Lauren Gray
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p84470353 **
GILBERTS—What a difference a year makes. Last season, the 12U Algonquin Argonauts played through a dismal schedule.
Game after game, the result was the same. The Argos simply couldn’t find the winning formula. Losses piled up which led to an 0-8 record.
With their first game approaching, those losses and unbelievable last season still lingered on some of the returning players minds. Some apprehesion surely was undertandable.
Thoughts of will the losing continue and more of the same this year or will things be different?…some of the 2026 players definitley thought of that entering their first game.
It soon became apparent that the 2026 season would be quite different!
Jace Barber, Conner Fillipp, Liam Black, Anthony Gormsen and Mekhi Ruiz along with others, dominted play on both sides of the ball from the opening whistle, producing a trouncing one-sided, 31-0 Shutout Victory, bannishing any thoughts of the negative yesteryear on August 23 in Gilberts.
“It was a fun day,” said an Outstanding Coach Joe Kenny. “In every game, our mind-set is the same, we want to come in first and establish the run. That was the plan and we broke off a real good run. In that particular instance, I felt like throwing on the 1-yard-line because I knew the route would be there for the score, thats not our norm because typically we like to come out and work our run game first.”
“We have a really hard-running fullback there with Jace (Barber) and we have three or four other kids that can run the ball really, really well for us, so establishing the run opens up a lot for us. Our offensive line moving bodies and helping us get the run game going early on really helped that game get out of hand early on today. I’m proud of the team we got, we return almost everybody after a really difficult season for us last year. We could feel from our first practice that the vibe was different this year, you could just feel a very determined nature for these kids. Kids have been working hard every day at practice. We knew last year was a blip on the radar and we got back to what out team can do this year.”
Coach Kenny also expressed he felt it was really important to get the monkey off of their backs and not carry those losses from last year into this season.
“We felt pressure, the coaches and I to get that win today. Really glad and pround how the boys came out and dominated.”
After a defensive stop forced the Shabbona Saints to punt, it didn’t take long for the Argos to jump ahead. A 25-yard run by Barber had the Argos just a yard away from paydirt. A surprise 1-yard pass by Connor Fillipp to Steven Ernsting quickly had the Argos up. Aidan O’Leary added the 2-point conversion kick for the 8-0 Argos lead.
The Argos defense was wreaking havoc early on as tackles by Barber, Kace Whitehead, Payton Aguilar, Mekhi Ruiz and Liam Black stymied the first two Saints series, the second forcing a turnover on downs.
A running attack by the Argos took off in their next possession. A short field saw them 35-yards from the endzone. Runs by Barber, Fillipp and O’Leary got them nearer but it was the pass that elevated the lead. Starting the seond quarter, Fillipp lofted a 24-yard heave towards Black who made a highlight catch draped by a defender in the endzone. The Argos second score brought out the Oos and Aws from both sidelines.
Once again, O’Leary added the conversion kick that upped the lead to 16-0.
A surprise onside kick followed which the Argos recoverd to maintain possession. Jason Heaton was “Johnny on the Spot” with the recovery. Unfortunately, they ran out of downs and couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity. However, on the very next Saints play, the defense would recover a fumble. Nico Esche grabbed the loose ball giving his offense another shot at scoring before half.
Down 16-0, the Saint became more aggressive resulting in a player ejected. Both defenses kept the other at bay the remainder of the first half with the Argos taking a 16-0 lead to the break. Hard tackles by Anthony (Nino) Gormsen, O’Leary and a sack by Kingston Little, highlighted the Argos second quarter defense.
Quarter three turned out to be very productive for the Argos. Two scores, one by Barber, a 42-yard weave to the near sideline and a 1-yard plunge by Fillipp saw the Argos jump ahead 31-0. A conversion kick by O’Leary and an extra-point run by Barber concluded both touchdowns.
The second half was total domination by the Argos. they added scores while holding the Saints to negative yardage for the game. Nothing the vistors tried worked and solely due to the Argos abilty to pentrate the line aand make stops including open field tackles. It truly was about a team determined to vanquish any thoughts of losing.
With a running clock during the final stanza of the game, the Argos coasted to the much earned, long overdue, 31-0 shutout victory to the elation of the home crowd.
This game saw talent on both sides of the ball. Offensively, the Argos possess a general on the field with Connor Fillipp at the helm. There’s no panic in this player. He is smooth in his execution and seems to know exactly what to do on every snap. His calmness during the action showed maturity beyond his age.
“I’II give a shoutout to all our linemen, protection worked really well today,” said Fillipp. “Because of the protection it unlocked our passing game and I thought our passing game worked really, really well today. We had some pretty good completions to my recievers and overall, our passing game was awesome. Of course our guys run the ball really well too.”
When asked about palying quarterback, Fillipp added, “I really love playing quarterback. Being the leader of the team out there, it comes with a lot of responsibilty and a lot of pressure but I think it’s just fun too, plus I live for the pressure, I don’t mind it at all. It was all good but I sometimes get down on myself for something I didn’t do well, so I need to improve that and maybe my short game, be a little more accurate. As a team we need to push through the whole game. We will get better at that.”
Running the ball well is an understatement, With a bulldozer who can shift and juke on a dime in their backfield, the Argos running game may just be lethal. Jace Barber is a power runner who can shift as he likes. His speed is deceptive because of his power running and banging to get to the open, but once there, he flashes speed and is difficult to run down.
“I like to run hard and make contact. I don’t shy away from it,” said Barber. “Whenever I get the ball, I just want to get my teammates hyped up, get the whole team hyped up so we do better as a team. I’d say I’m more a power runner and I think my style gets the crowd going too.”
Gifted with the ability to blast through opponents, Jace also doesnt mind throwing in a juke or two to unsuspecting defenders.
“Sometimes my mentality, if something goes wrong I get down so, I need to improve that otherwise, I feel it from the get go, I think I’m going to do well and I do. Today was great, we hadn’t won in a long time so this feels really good.”
The Argos showcased a plethora of talent in this game, Among them is a lanky receiver who seems to catch anything thrown his way. Liam Black just has a knack for making the catch. Good hands and focused on making his quarterback look good, he is a big weapon that teams will have to deal with. He had several receptions in this game but one was spectacular.
“On my catch, I was trying to read the defense and know what route I was going to run to get open. I saw the ball and managed to haul in the pass over the defender,” said Black with the catch of the day.
“As a receiver, I’m trying to get the team going, get receptions and help out my QB and my team. I love playing receiver. I like playing defense but i’d say I like playing receiver more. I do train at home doing drills, footwork, catching, all that stuff. I do go to a speed camp. It feels great to start with a win, Last year going 0-8, brand new year now. It gets better from here.”
The smallest of all the Argonauts seems to be around the ball the most. Anthony Gormsen doesnt have the height but that works to his advantage. He gets lost among the trees of the his defense and manages to come up with one on one tackles. His vision and abilty to get the ball and make a stop is boggling, yet he’s out there making big stops.
“I Like to hit, I like to help my team out. I find the ball and head to it,” said the diminutive tackling machine. “I like to get stops. My size actually is helpful. I get lower than everybody and it helps me get tackles. They don’t really touch me because I’m small but I use it and make plays. I thought my open field tackling was pretty good. All I’m doing is looking to make a stop, focused on making the tackle by wrapping the legs. Works for me and it helps our team.”
There were also contributions in the dominating win by other Argonauts. They include Mario Pulido, Rory Latham, Austin Jourdan, Ricardo Arroyo Jr., Gerardo Dorado-Sanchez, Charlie Fredrick, Miles Sedarski, JJason Heaton, Charles Wolf, Paxton Heimbrodt and Brady Steinhaus.
Other Chicagoland Pop Warner teams, Take Notice! This is NOT last years Argonauts!
