By Ed Muniz- Photo by Renee Kaspar
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AURORA— For some sports teams, the last week of the regular season seems to always have added meaning; added pressure; added nervousness.
Sometimes the outcome of that last game can make the difference of a season. The pressure to perform well and help the team win can weigh on you like a gorilla on your back. You still have to go out there and give it your best not only for yourself but also for your teammates.
There’s scenarios where you control your own destiny, win you’re in, lose you go home and you wait till next year. You may even win but need some outside help to advance.
For Tony Urso’s 11U D3 Jr. Celtics being in a situation where they needed to win and then hope for some help outside of their control, wasn’t Ideal, but it was still a chance.
From the Get-Go, the Jr. Celtics had one thought in mind, just win and let the rest playout.
They did just that, lambasting the host Gators on the field, enroute to a 29-7 needed victory.
“We Played well both sides of the ball, 10 out of 10 today,” said Coach Urso. “Some new guys came in there, they played the part and they played hard. That just came down to what we preached in the beginning of the game of let us not become worried of doing good, for the proper time we’ll reap the harvest if we don’t give up, that to me was the pin-point of the game, not giving up,”
“With a little bit of luck we can make the playoff with a loss by Yorkville, It was Burn the Boats today. The team was really starting to understand the format and how we get in our positions, they’re moving and clicking on all cylinders now. It was a must win game for us, We had to play and send a message to the league that we are clicking at the right time. Again, we need a little bit of luck, we put ourselve in a little bit of a situation where we need somebody to lose, but first we had to win this game and we did that and lets see what happenes.”
Offensively, the Jr. Celtics were a dominant force from the first whistle to start the game.
A first quarter run of 21-yards put the Jr. Celtics up 7-0 when Anthony Baniewicz streaked into the endzone. Greyson Johnson powred in and added the extra-point.
Bryce Szczepaniak followed the initial score with a 20 yard romp into the endzone for the second Jr. Celtics touchdown. Johnson added extra-point on a power run, puttng the Jr. Celtics lead at 14-0 early in the second quarter.
Quarterback Bryce Szczepaniak showed his ability to direct the offense while also providing some rushing yards to the offensive tally.
“Today, I was doing really good rolling out of the pocket,” said Bryce. “I was throwing the ball at the right times. Sometimes I struggled at not getting far enough outside and getting as many yards as I could. I like running the ball, I’d rather run than pass. I think our team did well with the wide receiver running their routes really well and our backfield running really hard through the holes. I Like how today turned out.”
The Jr. Celtics weren’t done scoring in the first half. With about 3:30 left in the second quarter, the Jr. Celtics found the endzone again, this time Declan Kirk joined the scoring club with his impressive 51-yard jaunt around the right edge, upping the Jr. Celtics lead to 20-0
Defensvely, the Jr. Celtics were up to the task. The first half saw them dominate play, returning the football to their offense five different times. They used an aggressive pressure off the snap and were quick to the ball repeatedly, limiting everything the Gators tried.
Tackles by Szczepaniak, Johnson, Jonathan Collins, Eli Schubert, Kirk, Baniewicz, William Janik, Austin Flynn, and Mason Munch all came up with stops with some having multiple tackles along with several that lost yards and pushed the Gators further back.
It wasn’t just tackling the Jr. Celtics defense were excelling in, they were opportunistic as well, keeping the Gators scoreless and limiting them throughout the first two quarters. Excellent pass coverage was also producing big returns when Munch intercepted an Aurora pass just before halftime.
The Jr. Celtics nearly added to their lead as time expired after the interception. Casey Gahan nearly found the endzone after breaking free for 65-yards to end the half.
A productive offense opened play for the Jr. Celtics in the second half. A 31-yard sprint by Kirk moved the ball quickly deeper into Gator territory. A few plays later on fourth and 18, Szczepaniak connected with Kirk for 15-yards but came up short, forcing a turnover on downs.
The second half saw the Jr. Celtics add to their lead but it was the defense that put points on the board this time. A bad snap from their own 10-yard-line saw the Gators retrieve the football inside their own endzone where Kirk made the tackle, awarding his team with a two-point safety, uping the lead to 22-0.
After the safety, the Jr. Celtics got the ball via a punt from the Gators. They prceeded to go on a 9-play drive that used up the rest of the third quarter and entered the final stanza. Unfortunately, the drive stalled and again they loss the ball on downs.
On the very next play, Kirk was masterful as he started running towards the endzone. It took a moment for his coaches to realize he ws streaking alone to the endzone after stripping the Gator runner of the football and running into the endzone all alone for the defensive touchdown. With the added point-after by Baniewicz, the elad was now at 29-0.
“We did really good at blocking,” siad Kirk. “I thought the blocks gave us a lot of space to run on offense. I like using my speed to get outside, I really like that. I probably need to improve running through people but I’m ok with doing what I do right now. On the strip, I was just there for the tackle and bryce managed to pull the ball out and it was in my hands so I just ran and scored a touchdown. Scoring is a lot of fun. I Tackled a lot but I think I can do better there too.”
The Gator did go one to score a meaning less touchdown near the end of the game to close to 29-7 but after a few snaps, the Jr. Celtics offense closed out the game for the much needed win and were now waiting on the results of a game they need one particular team to lose.
One player that showed his skills offensively was Casey Gahan. Gahan ran the football and also caught it as well. The versatile athlete was counted on doing all phases of the offense and excelled in every facet.
“I like running the ball; I like playing offense because of that,” said Gahan. “I think I juke better than any of my teammates when I run the ball. I make it hard for others to tackle me. I think I also have good vision and preview what I got to do before it happens. I think I’m very smooth but I probably need to block better. We all played pretty good today and won a game we needed to win.”
Other Jr. Celtics also contributed in this win, they Include Dean Copack, Romeo Brooks, Thomas McLaughlin, Luke Husenger, Asher Kokolus, Shareef Allan, Brady Lindholm, Grant Whitchurch, Connor Seltzer, Liam Berland and Austin Flynn.
Later in the afternoon, Coach Tony Urso and his Jr. Celtics luck ran out after finding out the help they needed never materialized, thus concluding their season with the 29-7 win in Aurora.
