By Bobby Narang- Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
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NEW LENOX— Illinois Jr. Celtics 11U football coach Nate Brown and his coaching staff wanted to see some progress late in the season from the offensive line in Division II play.
That day finally came on a glorious sun-drenched Sunday afternoon on October 5, when the O-Line, often the key determining factor of success for a young team, came together for their best effort of the season.
In the eyes of Brown, it was a wonderful moment and perfect timing, especially against a quality and motivated opponent in Lockport Jr. Porters. The Jr. Celtics offensive line sparked a game-turning 55-yard touchdown drive in the second half to propel the home team to a 28-12 win over the Lockport Jr. Porters at Bishop Kaffer Stadium on the campus of Providence Catholic High School.
Like a proud father, Brown gleamed with pride talking about the amazing improvement by his offensive line.
The Jr. Celtics (4-2) pulled out a grind-it-out victory to keep their record two games above .500, helping build some momentum for the playoffs with the regular season winding down. The Jr. Celtics rode the big-ball play of running back Brayden Simon all game long.
Thanks to his O-line, Simon chewed up yards in small pieces, but his toughness, along with quality blocking, consistently swallowed up clock time by moving the chains and keeping the visiting team’s offense off the field.
“We came into the week knowing it was going to be a physical and aggressive football game,” Brown said. “We just had to work hard and got ourselves ready to play four tough quarters of football. Brayden has been reliable and phenomenal football player for many years and grown into his own, but as great as he has been, we have to give a lot of respect to our offensive line. They struggled early in the year. Those boys have really turned it around, allowing our running game to be more successful and to show what we can do offensively.”
Brown said the offensive line is leaps and bounds better in Week 6 since the season opener, but he said the growing pains made Sunday’s victory extra special.
“At the beginning of the year, we had a lot of issues on the line, as far as being confident in their assignments,” he said.
“Once they got confident in their assignments, it was hammered into them and learning the details and to be comfortable making mistakes at 100 miles per hour. It became easier for them after that. There are five leaders on that offensive line – Camden Dvorak, Liam Kruse, Jaxon Cullum, Kadeem Singleton and William Mikaitis.”
“We pride ourselves on our defense, but the cool part in today’s game was that the defense took a backset to an offensive game. That’s something we needed as a team, so it was great to see the offensive line come together and jell and have a game they can be proud of and being the highlight of our win. They came together on play number one today. We started to see some good things last week, but this week they really hammered down. All 22 players on this team stepped up in the win and did their jobs.”
The Jr. Celtics’ offense needed very little time to get humming, scoring on their first drive via a run by Simon to cap an impressive march down the field for an 8-0 lead.
The Jr. Celtics saved one of their best drives for their third possession, which started at their own 49-yard line while holding an 8-6 advantage. Naturally, Simon was the main runner, rushing 28 yards on the first three plays, including a tackle-breaking 13-yard jaunt on the second play.
The drive ended on the eighth play on a 2-yard TD run by Simon for a 14-6 edge with 5:01 left in the first half.
The defense helped keep the lead intact on a smart tackle by Kaiden Powell on the visiting team’s next drive. On fourth down, Tyson Gagan broke up a pass to end the threat at the end of the half.
The Jr. Celtics padded the lead to 22-6 early in the third quarter. Simon had two hard-fought runs for 13 yards on a short field for the home team after a fumble recovery gave good field position. Ryan Ripoli darted to the right side for a grinding TD run of 19 yards, getting into the end zone with a dive to the pylon. Brayden Ruth drilled the PAT attempt between the uprights to finalize the drive.
The Jr. Porters had a long drive ended via strong plays by the defense of the Jr. Celtics. Jaxon Cullum had a big early tackle in the drive behind the line of scrimmage, and William Guinea III caused pressure on the second-to-last play of the drive to blow up a play.
Leading 22-12, the Jr. Celtics added an insurance touchdown on a 55-yard scoring drive that was helped by a long kickoff return by Guinea. Simon handled the heavy load on the drive, getting stronger as the drive continued down the field. He had a 10-yard run on the first play, ending the nine-play possession with a 2-yard TD run with 2:31 left for a 28-12 lead in the fourth.
After the visiting team took the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown to slice the gap to 28-18, the Jr. Celtics relied on two runs by Simon and a carry by Ripoli to ice the game for the win.
One by one, the Jr. Celtics offensive line was full of words following their inspiring effort in the victory, particularly pointing out how much fun they had blocking for Simon and the rest of the running backs.
“We kind of came out flat in the first quarter, but the second quarter we ran the ball hard and played very good as a team,” left tackle Singleton said. “We built our momentum and energy for all four quarters.”
Simon spread the happiness he felt toward every member of the O-line, including the backups, after Sunday’s game.
“I give all the respect to my O-line for having a great game,” Simon said. “They were the MVPs and they created the holes for me. They made my job way easier. It was like five yards at least on every play.”
Playing at right tackle, Cullum, who also plays middle linebacker, said the offensive line is rapidly improving at the perfect time on the schedule.
“We did great, all of us and we all came together and all of us got off the ball really fast,” Cullum said. “We all played fast and that allowed us to let our runners hit the hole and get five yards a pop.”
A center and defensive tackle, Dvorak had his hands full all game, but he proved up to the task in helping the offense and defense.
“We did really well on the offensive line and worked on getting to the second level and hitting those guys and taking the big players out of the play,” Dvorak said. “We worked really hard in practice and I was glad to see our running backs hit the hole. It was tough early in the season when we didn’t really have much of an offensive line for our running backs. We practiced hard to get better. I’m very happy now.”
Mikaitis, a left guard, said the offensive line followed the game plan to perfection.
“It was amazing how we played,” Mikaitis said. “We did good on going to the second level. They had some good defenders. I feel I did good today.”
Tight end Rex Schultz said he was thrilled to contribute blocking in Sunday’s win.
“It was so fun today,” Schultz said. “When we block, I can lay out people and watch our running back go all the way down the field. Brayden had a great game. We blocked really good for him all game. It’s really fun blocking for Brayden. He’s so good.”
The Jr. Celtics also received contributions by Rhett Johnson, Blake Schuler, Jake Tompkings, Vincent Bennett, Geno Voshholler, Jadyn Brigham, Codero Barry, Tyson Gagan, Michael Lehnerer III, Michael Zanta and Dominik Brown
