By Patrick McGavin- Photos by Jenn Anne Gledhill
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p600425740 **
NEW LENOX— The time has never felt so necessary to create a special designation for two very gifted playmakers.
Batman and Robin is already taken. The prowess and skill of Patrick Clarke and Keaton Kastys boasts a similar power and propulsive fury.
The only real question was which player was going to outduel the other.
By any measure, those are very good problems to have for the Green program of the Illinois Jr. Celtics 11U team.
The two are inevitable around the ball anytime the team needs a jolt of energy or a difference-making play.
“We have a cheat code on our team with two insanely fast players,” running back Logan Haavig said.
“A couple of games ago, Keaton had an interception and almost scored. We can get touchdowns on either side of the ball, and we have so many different ways of getting points.”
Clarke and Kastys were an expeditionary force who took turns making one gorgeous play after one another, showing off elite balance, footwork and explosiveness in space.
The two playmakers combined for all five touchdowns in the Jr. Celtics’ convincing 35-0 victory over the Arlington Dawgs in Chicagoland Pop Warner League play at Lincoln-Way Central on Sunday, September 20.
Kastys also had a crucial fumble recovery in the first half.
The wind-swept and rainy conditions forced the game being moved from Main Park in Mokena to the special turf field on the auxiliary part of the high school.
Kastys almost waxed nostalgic.
“At the beginning I wanted to play at Main Park in the mud,” he said. “I’m glad we didn’t because I’d be slipping all over the place.
Today I was able to keep my balance, find the holes and get those yards.”
Clarke was the exemplary player of a near perfect first half by the Jr. Celtics. He scored three touchdowns to power the overpowering 21-0 lead at halftime.
“We scored early, and I think everybody just got into the game,” Clarke said. “All I was thinking about were those huge gaps that my line was giving me.”
In every other instance, Clarke simply ran away from the Dawgs, using his jet speed to get outside or explode through space through the interior lines.
Right tackle Owen Brennan said everything connected.
The line opened the holes, and Clarke, Kastys and Haavig responded in their own brilliant fashion.
“Shout out to Michael Easthon, Alex Walker, Juan Gwanawato and Collin Petty,” Brennan said. “We’re all friends, and everything is very chill between us.
“They all helped me. The early scores got everybody hyped, and ready for the game.”
Clarke opened the game in mercurial fashion by taking a reverse from Kastys and blasting down the left sideline for the 56-yard touchdown scamper on the opening possession of the game.
“It was an early touchdown, and it shot our confidence through the roof,” Clarke said.
“I think when you score early like that, everybody just gets totally into the game.”
The first significant play by Kastys was his fumble recovery inside his own 20-yard line that thoroughly deflated the Arlington team.
The offense was operating at peak efficiency, with the running of Kastys and Haavig joined by the jet sweeps and reverses of Clarke. The two parts came together brilliantly.
The offense empowered the defense to match its skill on the field. The players ostensibly passed the baton from one to the other, like a relay..
“We were all coming into the game hyped up and ready to play,” Kastys said. “After Patrick scored the first touchdown, it just gave us all the momentum.
“I was ready to make big plays on defense and score on my own.”
Clarke was the engine driving the attack. Four plays after the fumble recovery, he broke loose for a 38-yard touchdown run.
“The line did a great job of blocking, and opening up all the holes,” Braden Vander May said.
“The players followed their assignments, the running backs played hard, and the quarterback did a great job with the handoffs.”
Another running back, Aiden Cesek, contributed with conversion runs of each of the first two touchdowns.
Haavig also had a conversion run.
The best parts of the team dynamic—the athleticism of Clarke and Kastys, the physicality of the defense—showed out in another magisterial sequence to close out the first half.
Arlington engineered its best drive of the game and appeared on the verge of scoring with a long pass play.
Kastys made a touchdown-saving tackle at the 13-yard line.
The defense took over from there, with the pressure applied by Walker and Jesus Delgado forcing three straight incompletions for the turnover on downs.
Clarke was just getting warmed up, as it turned out. He finished the half like he started it, as a house afire.
He parlayed the misdirection of the reverse with Kastys to perfection.
He closed out the first half scoring by bolting 68 yards down the left sideline for the third touchdown of the half.
Haavig pushed in the conversion for the three-touchdown halftime advantage.
“I’m always looking to get outside on those plays because I have the speed to beat the defenders,” Clarke said.
The second half was like a mirror of the first, only the names changed. Walker again ended an Arlington drive with a huge stop for negative yards on fourth down.
Kastys got into the act with two brilliant scoring plays of his own.
After nearly mishandling the handoff, he recovered brilliantly for a 38-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.
He completed the scintillating tone with a fourth quarter 20-yard touchdown burst.
Despite the huge lead, the Jr. Celtics never lost their focus or eyes on the ultimate prize. Up until the final whistle, the team was hungry and deeply engaged.
“If we’re up by 30, we stay the same way,” Kastys said. “The coaches always like to say zero-zero, no matter what.
“They always teach us no matter what the score is to always keep playing to the best of your ability.”
The Jr. Celtics’ 11U Green team had many key players step up in the big victory. They were Ahmad Awad, Max Sharpe, Jackson Aldworth, Lorenzo Aldworth, Grant Vellenga, Mason McKinney, Marcos Gutierrez, Dylan Nemec and Henry Richardson.
