By Ed Muniz- Photos by Renee Kaspar
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For Coach Gavin McCarron, the 2024 season was viewed as quite optimistic considering the talent he had returning.
Hopes were high with some changes he felt would improve the team, even after adding12 new players to the team.
Many Championships have been won on paper but not on the field for several reasons.
In the case of the 9U Jr. Celtics, after two games, they fall into a category of being an Enigma!
It’s puzzling why this team has under-performed and had issues that first year teams experience. The core players all returned. minus one due to injury, so a good base is there to succeed.
McCarron has a bevy of assistant coaches who are there to help and get the team ready to play, but after taking it on the chin, where almost nothing worked, during the 33-0 pasting they took from the Leyden Bears, could this be a season no one expected but not because of success but the alternative?
“It’s been tough, it’s been a tough go, our backfield just can’t seem to get it together,” said a frustrated Coach McCarron. “Our offensive line is doing some good things there, but our inconsistencies are in our backfield.”
Noticing that some of his players seem to be confused on what position to play or when to go in or where to go, McCarron added, “That’s the frustration part, we practice it all week and we get here and it’s like they’re lost. We really only run three sets, its just knowing when to go right or left.”
McCarron’s 9U team is now playing a D2 schedule so the competition is going to be stiffer.
“There are no gimmies now in D2, we know everything is going to be like what we just saw, but it’s a different year and teams are maturing faster than others. These two teams we lost to this year, we beat last season, so it’s back to the drawing board and work on correcting things.”
When you get beat so convincingly, there’s not a lot of positives to take from the game other than you’re glad it’s over, However, the Jr. Celtis kept trying and trying and never stopped playing throughout the game, they simply never quit no matter the score.
The Jr. Celtics first play of the game saw Austin Boyer smash his way for 8 yards, after that the next two plays tallied negative 3 and when their punt was returned 30 yards, The positive start seemed a distant memory.
Boyer did injure his wrist during the game and didn’t play with as much vigor because of it. He added, “I got a stinger on my right wrist, I was just mostly blocking after I sat out a few plays. I got switched to 3-back when I went back in and mostly blocked after that. I think we need to work on our blocking most of all, including me.”
During the ensuing Leyden series, the Jr. Celtics showed they could tackle well. Led by Boyer with two solos, the Jr. Celtics saw seven other Celtics finish tackles as the Bears marched towards the Mokena endzone.
Henry Bass, Alexander Wallace, Michael Salem, Cohen McCarron, Elijah Bogle, Quinn Collins and Zachary Obeng and each made a tackle.
The Bears completed the drive with a 1-yard run to grab the lead at 6-0.
After the score, the Jr. Celtics were fired up with a need to respond back. They proceeded to go on a 10-yard drive, grabbing some yards and losing some back.
Positive runs came from Boyer who grabbed 4- and 19-yards on his two tries, McCarron rushed for 18 yards on three carries and Keaton Kastys added 4 on his two carries.
Unfortunately, after Camden Fitzgerald was sacked for a loss, Mokena lost the ball on downs.
It took the Bears three plays for them to extend the lead after a 70-yard burst upped the lead to 12-0.
A drive near the end of the first half now saw the Jr. Celtics having problems with penalties and that snuffed out any thought of a late first half score.
Coming out for the second half, Mokena’s 9U footballers were still in this game. If they could get a stop and then go on to score, they were back in the game.
Leyden wasn’t cooperating. They scored another long touchdown just a minute into the half. With the score and the point-after, they now led 19-0.
The Jr. Celtics were just being over-powered by the Bears defense, knowing they were comfortably ahead. Nothing Fitzgerald tried from his quarterback position worked, although he never stopped trying throughout the second half.
“We couldn’t maintain our blocks so we couldn’t get anything going,” said Fitzgerald. “They would block and then let them go instead of keep going so we could move the ball. It’s not good so far but I think we can win our next six games and maybe making the playoffs, but we got to get better.”
Cohen McCarron was running hard and trying to kick-start the offense, but he simply was being overrun with defenders on most of his rushes.
“The linemen did open holes, but it was hard running in there,” said Cohen. When I went outside, I just was getting tackled, tackled, tackled, we didn’t block the wide receivers so we couldn’t run outside at all. It was frustrating for me. We have to get in the right positions and formation in our next game.”
The Bears found the endzone again after Mokena gave up the ball on downs after four offensive efforts.
A 31-yard run gave the Bears their fourth touchdown of the day and moved the score to 26-0.
Entering the final quarter, the Jr. Celtics had the ball, but three runs produced no yards as the Leyden defense shut them down.
Leyden did go on to score one more time on a 15-yard run and upped the score to 33-0 which turned out to be the final score.
Games like this happen, even the best football teams find themselves on the wrong end of a one-sided game. With too much talent on their roster, like Fitzerald said earlier, Maybe they’ll win the next six games.
Other Jr. Celtics trying all they could were Aiden Cesek, Zakai Obeng, Angelo Cameo, Caesar Kanu, Jesus Yepez, Parker Clay, Grayson Tadin, Leo Blythe, Cayden Precin, Chase Eddington, Porter Ronk, Holden Reid, Henry Richardson, Zachary Val-Denton and Colin Petty.
Cheering on the team and performing during the Homecoming halftime earlier were Marlowe Kokolus, Olivia Richards, Annabelle Osborne, Calissa Kanu, Gabriella Bal-Denton, Lily Burke, Mariana Santoro, Harper Kloiber, Ella Pearson, Adrianna Magana, Briella Price, Emmy Holland, McKenna Smith, Lily Gotkowski, Valentina Santoro, Eliana Jones, Maya Varnado, Natalie Mellon, Brynn Kaplan, Reese Erickson, Sophia Eytcheson, Mackenzie Tunney, Lilly Pearson.
