By Ed Muniz- Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase for 2 Weeks at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p849337515 **
GILBERTS- If you’re lucky enough to attend an Argonauts 11U Blue game. You’ll surely notice the pleasure the Players and coaches seem to be having.
It doesn’t matter what the score is, at least what it appears to this reporter, its an upbeat sideline led by an energetic, educational coach.
Joe Kenny leads the Argos 11U Blue team.
His coaching style is relaxed and energetic, he doesn’t seem to take much seriously and recognizes these are kids learning the game.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s not uncaring and corrects wrongs and addresses those that committed errors right on the sideline. He’s not a yeller and doesn’t make his players feel intimidated even though he towers as an imposing figure over all his players.
He simply has a way, a vociferous way of getting his point across about what he wants his players to understand when addressing them individually. It’s not yelling or screaming, it’s simply a calm, attention getting loudness to his players, and it works.
If Kenny was a teacher, he’d most likely be that cool science teacher or that history teacher that folks want to hear what he has to say. In a way, he is an educator to his players and makes it so they want to listen to him; a “Players Coach”.
On September 29, his Argonauts played hosts to the visiting Rockford Titans. When the final horn sounded, the Argos had listened, performed and decisively defeated the Titans 32-18 to the cheers of the home crowd.
Surprisingly, this was the Argos second win of the season. Even with more losses than wins, Kenny’s Argos were having a blast playing a sport that is sometimes more work than pleasure.
“We try to keep it light for the kids, try not to lose sight of it being a youth game,” said Coach Kenny. “We like to have a good time with the kids. Our objective is still to win and this was far sloppier than what we were hoping for. It’s mental mistakes and not executing the way we know how to that we need to get better at. But on both sides of the ball there’s a lot of bright spots.”
“Our offensive line really take pride in their job, I’ve got five kids across the board we can depend on. Paul Kenny is our center, he had zero bad snaps in the game, my two guards Charlie (Wolf) and Chirs (Campos), love what they do, they love pulling and being in front on the power plays and then my two tackles, Danny Cynova and Mekhi Ruiz, just mountains for their age, the five of them take pride in what they do, allowing us to pass and run.”
Right from the start, the Argos gave a sign of things to come with Aidan O’Leary taking the kick off and returning it 48 yards.
Three plays later, the Argos were up with Steven Ernsting’s 3 yard plunge into the end zone which gave the Argos a 6-0 lead just a couple minutes into the game.
With the tackling of Mekhi Ruiz, Jace Barber and Nino Gormsen, the Titans wre forced to punt after losing yards on three runs.
A big run by Barber propelled the Argos again into another scoring threat. Barber took a handoff, displayed excellent balance as several Titans tried to tackle him and continued ricocheting off tackles, staying on his feet for 42-yards.
Two plays later, Barber powered in from two yards out for the Argos second score of the quarter. Martel Grant added the extra-point that upped the score to 13-0 after one quarter.
The second quarter was much the same as the first with the Argonauts defense agin limiting the Titans offense, forcing a quick turnover on downs at their own 21, giving the Argonauts a very short field.
A couple of plays after the losing the ball, the Titans paid for poor judgement and gave up another score to the Argonauts.
A pass-play from Argos Quarterback’ Connor Fillipp to Liam Black connected for the 20-yard touchdown and was followed by another Fillipp pass to Ernsting for the extra-point for a 20-0 lead.
The next Titans series caught the Argos defense napping, resulting in a quick 35-yard touchdown pass as the Titan receiver got behind the Algonquin defense, cutting the lead to 20-6.
Giving the Offenses a short field never works out and again the Titans were giving visitors to the host. The Argos were not going to let a generous gift go to waste and proceeded to move quickly and use their timeouts wisely.
Runs of 11-yards by Camden Brim, 7-yards by Ernsting, 8-yards by O’Leary and 4-yards by Barber got the Argos to the Titan 1yard-line. From there, Grant powered in right before half time for the Argos fourth touchdown of the opening half for the 26-6 advantage at the break.
A 60-yard run opened the second half for the Titans. It went all the way for the touchdown and close the score to 26-12.
It took the Argos just two plays later to extend their lead back up again to 32-12 on a 52-yard burst by Grant.
The rest of the third quarter saw the titans struggle moving the ball against the Argos. Tackling continued to stymie for the most part the Titans offenseLiam Black, Gormsen and O’Leary added to the Argos tackle tally.
Penalties and mental mistakes began to plague the Argos. They did take their nest series into the fourth quarter but couldn’t sustain a drive for more points. Even after a stop on downs, a punt was mistakenly touched by an Argos player as he wasn’t aware of whether to pick up the bounding ball as it bounced off him.
The Argos continued tackling with Barber, Gavin Eich and Black making stops.
The Titans did score one last touchdown with 39 seconds left on a long 53-yard pass but it was little to late as the Argos ran out the clock for the 32-18 victory.
Quarterback Connor Fillipp was stellar in running his offense. He was poised and composed on every snap and worked his offense proficiently down the field. He made it look easy in this game.
“What comes easy as a QB for me is running your offense, just gotta use your brain all the time, know what everyone is doing,” said Fillipp. “The hard thing is making sure everybody knows what THEY’RE doing. I thought I did well in my passing game and running the offense today and that came up with a big dub. We need to improve as a team with the penalties and wrap up our tackles. I think we played great, not too bad at all.”
Running routes is probably the most difficult thing receivers have to do. It’s a learned talent you improve by doing it over and over again. Liam Black seems to be a quick learner. He was masterful in his route running which made completing passes to him easier.
“I just see open field and when I get a nice pass in stride, it makes an opportunity to get a touchdown,” said Black.
When asked how he gets behind the defense so quickly, Black said. “Knowing the route and knowing how fast you need to go and what to do. I thought both our run game and passing worked pretty evenly. I’d like to improve running my routes crispier and running sharp cuts and straight lines. Our O-Line was good today.”
All around, Jace Barber was the total package. He contributed both offensively and defensively. His runs were fun to watch whether in the open field or just plowing through defenders while on defense, his hard tackling left no doubt the play was over.
“I prefer playing defense because I get to light up people,” said Barber. “Its natural for me to be aggressive on the field. If they’re talking trash during the game to my teammates, It inspires me to get back at them. I usually run the ball better, I didn’t think I kept my feet moving like I have before. My game today was alright, I’ve done better, I was a B-Minus today. As a team I think we did great.”
Others adding to the winning efforts were Julian Castro, Nico Esche, Rory Latham, JJ Benson, Ricky Arroyo Jr., Jayden Brim, Lance Krupke, Walter Kenny and Brody Sheetz.
Cheering on the team and performing at half time were the Junior Varsity Argonauts Cheerleaders. Their talents were on full display throughout the game on the sidelines and at half. They include Sophia Acevedo, Ava D’ Avanzo, Bella Gutierrez, Julie Guzman, Madison Hogan, Brooke Holm, Leilany Ibarra, Delaney King, Alisson Morales, Alivia Morales, Isabella Ruston, Etta and Jane Schillinger, Goldie Thrower and Amelia To.
