By Ed Muniz- Photos by Kathy Jones
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p45655770 **
Plainfield- The Playoffs…
The Second Season!
In team sports, goals are set at the beginning of every season. Every team has a fresh start and hopes are high at the onset.
Among the goals set by every team is being better than the previous season. Along with that, making the Playoffs and a chance at a League Championship is the ultimate goal.
If you do reach the playoffs, it’s a sign of the success you had during the season, especially where only a limited number qualifies. At this stage, it’s Win and continue, if you lose, your season ends.
Among the D3 Division of the 10U Chicagoland Pop Warner League, 15 teams were all vying for one of the six coveted spots of the Playoff Tournament.
With a 5-3 record, Coach John Milosovic and his team of Mokena Jr. Celtics warranted the chance to extend their season as the 5th-seed.
As one of the six to qualify, their opening game would match them up against the 4th seed, Plainfield Saints at Plainfield Central High School on October 22.
With no previous experience against each other, the game was an unknown as to had the advantage.
The Saints went on to control much of the action and limited the Jr. Celtic offense during their 20-0 shutout win, eliminating Mokena thus ending their season.
“We felt we could possibly compete,” said Coach John. “They deserved to win, they were a good team and came out and played better than us.”
Late in the season, the Jr. Celtics did lose three starters to injury which may have affected both sides of the ball for them.
“We were a little bit weak on the line and we didn’t have our quarterback, so we had to change our offense, other than that, I just think they came out and played better than we did today.”
“Half of our team was new to football, I’m really proud of them and to make the playoff our first season has been great.”
Defensively, Mokena struggled to contain on the outside. Numerous times the Saints quarterback would fake the handoff and have the Jr. Celtics chasing the wrong player allowing the Saints Quarterback to gain big yards.
‘We struggled with that all season, we have a lot of new guys, so we are learning several positions and how to play them, they did a good job and took advantage of us collapsing on the fakes,” said Coach John.
“We have some Athletes, they’re coming together and a great bunch of kids, I’m excited for next year that we are going to continue to build, we made some good strides, I told them keep your heads up, its baby steps, this was a good start, we had a great season.”
Although it was a struggle getting their offense going and maintaining drives, the Jr. Cektics gave it their all each play.
Leading the way was Quarterback Christopher Robinson. Small in stature but big hearted, there was no quit in this leader as he gave an all-out effort each time he tried to advance the ball.
“I came in just wanting to run hard and score touchdowns,” said Robinson. “It was difficult getting through the line and getting yards.”
Several times, Robinson was in shotgun formation which didn’t work to well.
“We practice it but today the center couldn’t get the snaps high enough. We made some mistakes. If we can open holes bigger and hit and tackle harder, we will be better. It was hard trying to get through their big kids. That was a big reason we didn’t do as well today.”
Robinson had some success running the ball and leading his offense but today his forte was making stops and getting through the line several times defensively. Unfortunately, he needed more help.
A couple other standouts defensively did all they could to stop the Saints.
Lucas Gravitt and Lorenzo Decarlo. Each made several tackles and showed the aggression needed to excel defensively during the playoff game.
“I think I could have done better tackling today,” said Gravitt.
When asked what the reason was the Saints fakes worked so well, Gravitt added;
“I Couldn’t see over the linemen; they stood up so couldn’t see where the ball was going. I think if we run fakes in practice, we can get better at that, spying on the ball more. I think we had someone on the quarterback, but he wasn’t getting there fast enough. I really like playing defense because I like hitting people and making tackles.”
Decarlo seemed to have the knack of being around the ball constantly, he also recovered a muffed punt that gave his team another offensive series.
“The coaches always tell me I’m one of the better starters on defense,” said the defensive star Decarlo.
“They always tell me they need me on defense. I like to make tackles and hit, I’m not scared or back off from making a hit. I think I am aggressive, you need to be on defense, if not, why play it? I use ut to really get going.
Decarlo also recognized the Saints quarterback was their offense.
“I think we should have spread our defense out more because they depended on their quarterback to make plays. We should have done better. I think Grant (Whitchurch) and Lucas (Gravitt) did pretty good to on defense.”
The game started as poorly as possible for the Mokena defense. The Saints scored on their very first play from scrimmage, going 65-yards on a sweep around their left end. The 6-0 lead stood the entire first half.
Mokena did try to answer several times with runs by Robinson, Colin Bailey, Gravitt and Bryce Kaplan but sustaining drives were difficult with the quick, swarming Saints defense penetrating the Mokena Line regularly.
Defensively, the Jr. Celtics picked up their game after the initial score. Tackles by Broderick Wallace, Whitchurch, Robinson, Adekunle Bobade, and Kaplan limited the Saints and stopped another big play fro happening in the opening half.
Attrition may have taken a toll on the Jr. Celtics in the second half.
Defensively, they were on the field for much of the time as their offense simply couldn’t find the formula of putting together a drive, moving up field.
The Mokena offensive possessions of the second half resulted in twice turning over on downs after four plays, a punt and running out of time, while their opponents would score twice with short fields of 39- and 34-yards, extending their lead to 20-0 with less than 2 minutes to play.
Runs of 6-yars and 3-yards by Carter Bellik ended the game. The Saints would move on while the Jr. Celtics concluded their season with a 20-0 loss.
Several other Jr. Celtics contributed to the successful season. They include Micah Barnett, Gavin Collins, Easton Breen, Elliot Bodine, Nikko Triolo, Ethan Kozola, Nathan Quiroz, Austin Crites, Thomas Johnson, Grant Smith, Asher Kokolus, Matthew Curry, Blake Jacobson, Kaleb Katsys, and Travis Delisle.