By Bobby Narang-Photos by Lauren Gray
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PLAINFIELD – Football coaches love to talk about starting strong and finishing strong. Unlike many sports, such as softball, baseball, basketball and others, football is often played on most levels just once a week.
Thus, the importance of learning from practices and showing that improvement early in games is important.
Also, closing out a game in a strong fashion – win or loss – is essential for building morale and momentum for the following week.
The 6U Mokena Jr. Celtics, thanks to the running of star back Logan Cesek, accomplished both of their objectives in Sunday’s game against the Hampshire Whip-Purs.
Playing on a plush grass field, right behind the Plainfield Central football stadium, Cesek and his teammates put on an offensive show to remember. The game started one hour late to an issue with officials, but Cesek made it worth the wait for the fans, parents and supporters of the Jr. Celtics.
Cesek busted wide and outran the entire defense for a 65-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage. A fast and strong runner, Cesek ended the game with 48-yard run with 9.2 seconds remaining in regulation.
Led by an explosive offense and stingy defense, the Jr. Celtics recorded a 30-0 victory against the Whip-Purs.
“I broke outside and tried not to get tackled and just ran tough,” Cesek said of his first TD. “I wanted to run hard to not let them get me. It’s a great win. We have two great running quarterbacks, a great quarterback and a great defense.”
Cesek put on the icing on the cake on the outstanding two-way show by the Jr. Celtics with his final TD, surprising the fans with his vision, speed and ability to not step out of bounds while eluding tacklers.
His burst of speed and ability to just escape tacklers made him unstoppable for the visiting team all game long.
“I cut through there and had to go outside, so no one could tackle me,” Cesek said.
After Cesek scored the first touchdown, the Jr. Celtics played solid on defense to get the ball immediately back. That’s when Liam Adent announced his presence with a wild and exciting 75-yard touchdown run, going to his left and cutting back through the heart of the defense, while getting some excellent blocks to score his long touchdown.
On the next series, Adent also scored on a 10-yard scamper for an 18-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
“It’s fun to win,” Adent said. “We all practiced a lot. I practiced at my house with my dad and he taught me how to run faster and not get tackled. It was fun today. We played before the game. I liked running away from the defenders. I know the faster I run the better and longer the (run) will be.”
In the third quarter, Mokena went back to scoring touchdowns when quarterback Sebastian Kouba found the end zone with a 3-yard TD run to pad the lead to 24-0.
Cesek ended the explosive late morning game with his 48-yard run to put a final exclamation point on the signature victory to keep his team undefeated on the season at 7-0.
Jr. Celtics’ defensive coordinator Steve Styx said the defense pursued well, gang-tackled and played tough to make sure the visiting team never stepped foot in the end zone.
“The defense has been really playing lights-out for the last seven games,” Styk said. “Our linebackers are playing great and combine with a great defensive line really helps. We know we have a stable of running backs to hand the ball off to, but if our defense isn’t firing in the same way, then it’s one half of the game. We really coach this defense hard during the week. Every day they are scrimmaging against the best offense, so we’re tackling the best running backs day in and day out. We’re trying to get better every day. These guys come in there and try and make every play the best play. It feels great to be 7-0. We have a great Celtics’ family and they support us and travel really well.”
Linebacker David Honkisz set the tone with a big tackle behind the line of scrimmage on Hampshire’s first play of the game. On the second play, Honkisz was back to his big play way with another tackle, this time to save a touchdown on a breakaway run.
On Hampshire’s third drive, Honkisz showed off his knack for making plays due to his speed, strength and ability to ready play. He had an outstanding tackle to stop another run from going the distance. Kaleb Neylon added a quarterback sack with 2:35 left until halftime, and Knox Kucala and Cesek ended the scoring threat with back-to-back outstanding stops to close out the quarter.
“I just played hard,” Kucala said. “I tried to find the ball and go that way to stop them. We have a good team with a good running back and good linebackers.”
The Whip-Purs couldn’t move the ball on their first drive of the third quarter, forced to give up the ball on downs. Later, on their second series of the second half, Honkisz kept up his habit of pulling down a runner from behind to stop a potential play.
And, just like in the previous series, his teammates were motivated to follow in Honkisz steps. Camden Styx had a key stop and Kucala had a bone-crushing hit and teammate Ryan Sanders followed with a key tackle to end the drive on downs.
“I like getting tackles and playing defense and I try to get better every single day,” Camden Styx said.
Sanders flashed his strength by playing on both sides of the ball at offensive line and defensive line.
“I’m super good at tackling and dive a lot to get a lot of tackles,” Sanders said. “I really love football. It was fun. The (offensive) line did good blocking today.”
The Jr. Celtics have a small but gritty unit, as several other players had a hand in Sunday’s win, including Jackson Baker, Leonidas Christou, Kaleb Cloutier, Brantley Fischer, Brady Fitzgerald, Colin Frainey, Knash Hazdra, Vincent Iuliano, Gannon Mathis, Kaleb Newton and Mack Simon.
