By Miles Toogo- Photos by Renee Kaspar
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p921243387 **
OTTAWA— When you have a football team loaded with talent, the expectations entering a new season are vast. You anticipate many successes simply based on the amount of abilities you know exsist among the team.
Individual talent is laden throughout the Gator 9U team, It’s raw, but it’s there. However, this is a new team entering its premier season with the Aurora Gators Youth Football and Cheer organization.
Coach Tae Butcher holds the reigns of these latent individuls and recognizes there’s work to be done but improvement will be a week to week process. The latest result was 20-7 defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Wolfpack on August 30 in Ottawa.
Possessing hidden and undevoped talents, the Gators just need time and experience in playing as one unit, then the victories will pile up which is coming very soon.
“I think right now, we’re trying to find an Identity. We have a lot of new guys, we also have a couple guys that we are counting on that are still working their way back in,” said Coach Tae.
“Wish I had this team in spring ball, we could have worked out a few of the kinks. We are new to the program with a lot of new kids and we are currently trying to figure out everybody as well as they are trying to figure us out. Once we get everything gelled together and get a little chemistry, I think we will be in much better position.”
Coach Tae also recognizes it’s a work in progress especially early on in the season. He was happy with the improvement in week two from week one and expects each week to be better with better results as well.
“We didnt tackle well and we weren’t disciplined, these are things we can develop over time with practice. Important defensive wise to be disciplined, staying home, proctect your area. Offensively, we are still gelling, I feel offense takes a little more time; we are figuring out who goes where and call plays we can work for the personnel we have at that time in the game. I think we played at about a 6 out of 10 today, so we have room to improve for sure, but im proud of our efforts and inprovements.”
The game began with the Gators on defense. Although the Gators managed to make stops and prevent the big play for a score, they were being whittled away by a meticulous run game by the Wolfpack as they moved the ball towards the opposing endzone.
Tackles by Carter Perkins, Kamryn Torres-Ventir, Coryeon McGeee, Richad Harris Jr., Elijah Groves and Zane Romero made things difficult for the Ottawa offense but eventually, the host found the endzone after competing an 11-play drive. Adding the extra-point, Ottawa led 7-0.
The Wolfpack kept moving the pigskin on their initial drive, using up nearly the whole first quarter. The Gators managed just a pair of plays in the opening quarter which included a run by Bryton Oliver and a pass completion from quarterback’ Leo Robinson to Damari Butcher for minimal yards.
Beginning the second quarter, the Gators looked to establish the run which produced the longest drive of the game by either team. This wasn’t a steady flow of yard after yard, it was a 17-play drive of back and forth. Gain some yards, lose some.
Penalties and negative yards would be overcome by Robinson’s elusiveness. His drop back and then takeoff offense confused the Wolfpack defense, along with the difficulties of his abilities to outmanuver pursuers. On four different runs he produced 25-, 13-, 9- and 7-yards to continue the Gators drive.
Oliver and Butcher also conributed to the success of the Gators opening drive with runs and receiving yards.
Beginning at their own 35-yardline, the Gators managed to work down field to the Wolfpack 5. From there, Robinson dropped back after a time out and raced around right end untouched for the Gators touchdown. An unexpected pass-play was called for the extra-point, surprising everyone which was completed when Royce Cocharane made an outstanding snagged of the high-quck pass to tie the game at 7-7.
With momentum now on their side, the Gators defense turned it up a notch as stops by Robinson (3 Solos), Torres-Ventir and Jahziel Cervantes stopped Ottawa and took the game tied into halftime at 7-7.
The Gators weren’t able to sustain that first half momentum coming out to start the second half. After four plays which produced negative yards, the Gators had to release the ball on downs which saw the host sideline pumped up.
A short field gave Ottawa an advantage with their starting point just 33-yards from taking the lead. Although Robinson came away with three stops with Groves and McGee each added their solos tackles, the Wolfpack took six tries to reach the endzone, ending with a 1-yard plunge. Adding the point-after, the Gators now trailed 14-7 with just a little over 2 minutes left in the third stanza.
Try as they might, the Gators offense was sputtering. Their next series was an opportunity to respond but a couple runs by Butcher netted just four yards, followed by a 3-yard burst by Robinson and on fourth and three, the Gators went to the air but the ball fell incomplete to end the drive on downs.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Wolfpack now had a chance to elevated their lead to a two-score difference. They did just that.
Again a short field played to their advantage and they made the most of it scoring from 5-yards out on the 8-play drive. A stop by the Gators denied them the extra-point which brought the Ottawa lead to 20-7.
During the drive, the Gators still continued to play hard as several defenders made tackles which included Robinson, Harris Jr., Butcher, McGee and Terell Tate.
The last two minutes saw the Gators continue to play hard, trying to add to their score until the final whistle. Robinson to Oliver connected on the 14-yard reception then Robinson took off up the middle on the snap for another 17-yards but two negative plays including a snap that went over Robinson’s head and a sack brought an end to the game with the Wolfpack upending the visiting Gators, 20-7.
A standout talent for the Gators, playing both ways is Leo Robinson. He has that natural abilities that others have to work hard at to obtain. For him it just comes naturally. Several times during the game he displayed just how talented he is by eluding all defenders or slashing and out-manuvering them for many yards. He was the Gators main offensive weapon.
But its not all offense for him. His abilities shine bright on the defensive side too. As a safety, he sees the flow of the play and can close quickly to the ball. He often makes the tackle with his aggressive play.
“I like throwing the balll to my receivers and I like seeing where the ball is about to go,” said the elusive Robinson. “I drop back to pass but if I can’t find anyone, I start running and I try to juke them but if they trap me I try to chuck them to get away and make a play. I think I played around a three out of five today. The hard part is that there are a lot of tall people on my team so it’s hard to see over them.”
“If our guys can stay with their blocks better, it will help us especially when we try to run outside if they block them in. When I play defense I watch where the ball is going so that helps me make tackles. I sit back and watch where the ball is going playing safety. I think we did pretty good tackling today”
Kamryn Torres-Ventir was another of the green talent the Gators had on the field. A stature that can be intimidating, his pressure on the defnsive side of the ball create opportunities not only for him but also his teammates. Because of him, they too get shots at making stops. He is an aggressive defender whos whole objective is to make the tackle.
“I like play outside linebacker,” said Kamryn. “What works really well for me is I watch where the ball is going, sometimes I go, sometimes I don’t, but I still need to work more on staying in my area to make more plays. Sometimes I over-pursue the ball. I think we did that as a team a lot today. They did try to run outside a lot and with reverses, so that’s why I need to work on that.”
“We did well on dropping back on passes and on offense we could block better but we still had the effort. On defense we did pretty good. When I play defense, tackling is an important stat and I wanted to get a good average of tackles, I want to be steady every game, it’s important I do that for our team.”
Bryton Oliver is unique in the sense that he runs the ball well, using power and strength to pile up yards but its not what he prefers doing. The talented runner would rather be on the receiving end of passes and gain yards for his team that way.
“I think I am a power runner but I prefer playing receiver. I catch better than I run,” said Oliver. “My brother and I stand outside and throw the football around a lot so I catch the football a lot, I know how to do that pretty good. I thought our quarterback threw and ran that ball pretty good so our team did that good. I thought I ran the ball good too but I can get better by working hard and not missing practice. I think we will get better the more we play.”
Playing his corner position well and coming away with several tackles in the game by staying low on contact was Richard Harris Jr. As part of a positive defensive game even in the loss, he showed signs of knowing how to tackle and how to elude a block to make the stop. His aggressive style was another of the positive building block that Coach Tae is eager to work on.
“I thought my tackling was really good today,” said Harris Jr. “My dad works on helping me find the ball so I focus a lot. I will get better too. I see the ball and go to make a tackle. I think we play pretty good defense but we need to be better at blocking on offense. We had a lot of arm tackling too and we didnt chase the guy with the ball too well. We have to get better at that. I think we can be good the more we play.”
Other Gators giving their all in the game included Alexander Garcia Linares, Legend Harrington, August Jackson, Gabriel Ramirez, Dominique Smith, Christian Taylor, Jonathan Walker and Jai Webb.
