By Bobby Narang- Photos by Kathy Jones
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NEW LENOX – The Orland Park Pioneers showed numerous positives throughout Sunday’s Lightweights game against the Lincoln-Way Central Knights.
In the River Valley Youth Football League game, the Pioneers stayed strong during a trying game that featured several big plays by Knights’ quarterback Luke Woodburn.
Nearly every time the Pioneers gained some momentum, Woodburn stole the show his elusiveness and cutback ability to stop any thought of a comeback by the visitors. Woodburn was all over the field, opening the scoring with a touchdown pass in the first quarter. He added a 10-yard TD run in the second quarter, then scored on a 20-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Thanks to a big effort from Woodburn, the Lincoln-Way Central Knights posted a 20-0 win over the Pioneers at Jonss R. Lashmet Field at Lincoln-Way Central High School on Sunday afternoon.
The Pioneers concluded the regular season with a tough defeat, but their effort, heart and toughness were evident throughout the game. The Pioneers (6-2) enter the playoffs riding a solid effort in the regular season, according to coach Al Krokos.
“We had a very good regular season,” Krokos said. “They fought hard in the regular season, even today in the loss. We have some work to do before we play some tough teams. We have to get ready for the playoffs. The quarterback on the other team was good. We had him in the backfield, but we didn’t finish the plays. If we finish our plays, they don’t score that many touchdowns. We have to learn to tackle low, not high. We will get better. This is a great group.”
Orland Park’s Christian Paulson was the recipient of the postgame championship belt trophy, which is given by his coaches. Paulson was strong in the tough loss, playing well in the four quarters to help keep his team from letting the game get out of hand.
“The key today doing a good job,” Paulson said. “They had a very good quarterback. He was pretty good. We had a tough time. Our team is awesome, but we could’ve done better in this game. This is not how we usually play. We have played a lot better this season, but they beat us today. I was happy with how I played. We have a super good team.”
His teammate, Cody Godlewski, was given the AXE trophy, which he proudly carried around for several minutes. Godlewski, like Paulson, was a key player in the game due to his physicalness and determination on the offensive and defensive lines.
“It was awesome to get the ax,” Godlewski said. “Their quarterback was fast and really, really good. I feel good about the team. We did a lot better later in the game, but we didn’t play our game today. I’m excited for the playoffs.”
The Pioneers had a tough time moving the ball, mainly because of Lincoln-Way Central’s big and strong defensive line. The Pioneers finished with 22 yards rushing, with the biggest play for them coming on a 20-yard reception from quarterback Luke Krokos to Hudson Doftert on the final play of the second quarter. Doftert added a big play on defense, too. He recovered a fumble on the second play of Lincoln-Way Central’s first drive of the second half.
Even so, the offense nearly managed to have a long drive to start the third quarter, but the Knights’ defense buckled down and forced the possession to end on downs. Running back Zackary Salah was a key contributor for the Pioneers, finishing with 18 yards rushing to spark the offense.
Defensively, Dylan Ahmer had the play of the game for the Pioneers, helping end a long drive by the Knights with a deflection on fourth down to stop a scoring threat.
On special teams, Max Streets showed off his skills with a nifty 23-yard punt return to put the Pioneers in good field position late in the third quarter.
Krokos said the fifth quarter team played outstanding football, displaying their positive attitude and character in the game.
“Our fifth quarter and Wednesday guys were battling a lot, moving the ball and had a lot of fun out there,” Krokos said. “That was great to see them play so well. We will keep them moving along, and got some scrimmage games coming up, so we will be going to work the next two weeks.”
Even in defeat, the Pioneers collected solid plays from the entire team to build some momentum for the playoffs. The team includes Max Streets, Kristian Willis, Hudson Doftert, Anthony Baniewicz, Blake Schuler, Vinny Ficaro, Luke Krokos, Cole Baldridge, Luke Tonra, Jase Enstrom, Vincent Spizzirri, Carter Erwin, Carter Peluso, John Sutter, Luca Morandi, Karam Olyyan, Noah Cordoba, Nicholas Mase, Zachary Salah, Andrew Richardson, Gavin Connors, Caden Kolodziej, Bennett Brown, Nicholas Peisker, Christian Paulson, Scott Gumienny, Cody Godlewski, Nicholas Dertz, Nick Pomonis, Yousef Yasin, Samuel Horeluk, James Okrasinski, Dominic Lach, Collin Valan, Muhammad Kassel, Dylan Ajmer, Avery Vermilyea, Michael Ordman III, Michael Galivan, Nathan Campos, Jude Morrar, Raider Slabenak, Owen Garrity and Brian Curran.
