By Ed Muniz- Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
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After gaining their first win of the season in the previous weeks’ game at Lockport, Coach Tom Comise and his 7U Jr. Celtics liked the tastes of the sweet fruits of victory.
In their season finale at home, they hoped to close out the schedule with another addition to the win column.
Opposing them were Dixmoor Vikings who had managed just one more victory than these Jr. Celtics.
It was certain the Jr. Celtics would have a great chance of notching another W.
The difficulties of the season made its appearance in this game. Add a muddy field and a constant rain on a windy, cold afternoon, made things much more difficult, in particular for the hosts.
Unable to get much offense generated, the Jr. Celtics would taste defeat in their 13-0 loss.
“Offensively we couldn’t get rolling,” said Coach Comise. They penetrated our offensive line pretty well; our quarterback was getting hit every handoff, we just couldn’t get going offensively all game.”
Of their six possessions in the game, the Jr. Celtics punted four times, had a turnover on downs after four tries and ran out of time to end the game.
Dixmoor was more the problem for the Jr. Celtics difficulties offensively. The Vikings were larger upfront and seemed to time the snap which gave Quarterback Michael Comise little to no time to hand off.
“We have changed our snap at times but because of the conditions, it was difficult today. I felt we were a little flat pretty much on both sides of the ball. We did make a lot of very good defensive plays in the first half, which I was happy about.”
“We’ve been hurt by the big play all season long but we prevented that which was really nice to see and when they did break one, we managed to catch up and make the tackle.”
Among the players showing great effort and producing stops was John Skuzinski. He led the Jr. Celtics defensive efforts in miserable conditions. Skuzinski produced several stops and was able to keep the Vikings at bey with his ability to make a stop.
The Vikings were also punting several times because of it.
“John Boy, he might be one of the smallest kids on the field, but I guarantee he’s going to be the toughest,” said Comise. “He’s played super tough for us all year long.
The first half saw no scoring with both teams finding the field tough going but also the defenses hard to solve.
Among the Jr. Celtics making stops besides Skuzinski were Ryder Dow, Timothy Gena, Ashton Bradshaw and Caleb Partin. Their tackling efforts kept the game scoreless in the first half.
Offensively, The Jr. Celtics were gaining little to no yards when they were able to get a play off. Yeah, there were efforts by Vincent Venegas, Bradshaw and Michael Comise; even pass attempts but footing was difficult at best and a slippery football also caused fumbles and fluttering passes that halted plays behind or near the line of scrimmage.
Concluding the first half scoreless, both teams looked to solve the scoring drought in the second half.
The second half opened with the Jr. Celtics trying their offense again. Unfortunately, they again punted after four plays.
Venegas led the way defensively. He came out of halftime determined to make stops and he did just that. He grabbed several tackles including a big sack in the third quarter that pushed the Vikings back 7-yards.
“Vince (Venegas) does a great job for us, he’s just a kid that loves football,” said Coach Comise. “he is one of new guys this year, he has definitely stepped up and filled some rolls for us, great player.”
The second half did see Mokena continue to tackle well with Dow, Skuzinski, Hendrix Benard, Bradshaw and Venegas all adding to the defensive tally.
The game saw its first score some early in the final stanza when a 29-yard run went for a touchdown and put the Vikings up 6-0.
With momentum and the lead now on their side, the Viking defense turned it up a notch and limited the Jr. Celtics to a three and out. Bradshaw would have the longest run of the day for the Jr. Celtics which gained 5-yards on that drive.
It was frustrating and difficult for the Jr. Celtic offense as they aren’t accustomed to being limited even in earlier losses like they were in this game. it just wasn’t meant to be on this day.
The Vikings did add another score on a 40-yard sprint to up their score to 13-0 nearing the end of the game.
Coach Comise team never quit in the game and continued to give their all as the final horn sounded.
Defensively they were formidable with John Skuzinski being the other Pesky thing the game had besides the rain for the Vikings.
“John (Skuzinski), Vince (Venegas) and I’d say Caleb (Partin) played big defensive roles for us this season. I’d agree John has been quite a big for us all season.”
“Offensively, it took a majority of the season to start scoring, we did towards the end, we were in a lot of close games. A lot of big plays hurt us; we were hurting on size on our line, its why our offense like today was stalling. The whole team kept fighting all season.”
“We have a lot of leaders on this team that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Typically, when you’re part of a losing team, kids don’t want to go to practice, but that wasn’t our case, we had full attendance at every single practice, kids loved being there. Watching the way our kids tackled and comparing it to others we saw, fundamentally, I’m very happy with the results of the season.”
Comise also mentioned two others for their play this season. Initially they were intended as linemen but both Corbin Caine and Jack Christou got his praise.
“Corbin started as a corner, he had great technique, kept his hands inside and he loved to bang a little bit so even though he was a smaller kid, we put him on the offensive line, he was outstanding, both him and Jack , small dudes, they went out there and played the guard position very tough for us, they never shied away even from the 130-pound kid across from them.”
Other Jr. Celtics giving their all the entire season included Finn Ward, James Short, Owen Miller, William Fitzgerald, Joseph Paciorek, John Drabeck, Rocco Macaluso and Jack Mackiney.
This has been a season of learning, filled with opportunities and difficulties as expected from young players just beginning their football experiences. Look for this team to improve big time next season.