By Patrick Z. McGavin- Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
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MOKENA— Looking back is never an option for the Jr Celtics 13U team that has more elevated aspirations. A journey that has been years in the making has been fraught and complicated, marked by severe changes of fortune and hope.
Now the team is trending in the best possible manner.
“Right now we’re in a great mindset,” coach Robert Russell said. “The players truly believe nobody can beat them.”
It took just seconds for this iteration of the Jr Celtics to show what they were capable of. Dominic Brown returned the opening kickoff 82 yards down the right sideline for the first touchdown.
The team played at a higher level.
The Jr Celtics 13U team dominated every phase in the 45-0 Homecoming victory over the Lockport Porters in Pop Warner League play at Main Park on Saturday night, August 31.
“I caught the ball, and there was a hole and I found it and took it all the way to the end zone,” Bennett said. “My first thought was not to let anybody catch me from behind.”
The Jr Celtics registered three safeties and scored five touchdowns in an electrifying showcase of their depth, skill and elite high level talent.
“I felt like the return touchdown got everybody hyped up, and everybody wanted to play,” Bennett said.
Standout running back Nakhati Thompson scored a 43-yard touchdown on his only carry. He added a fumble recovery that set up another touchdown and posted six tackles.
The aggressive, hyper and sharp defense had nine tackles for loss. The pressure at the point of attack forced the Porters into repeated errant snaps that gave the Jr Celtics prime field position. Lockport only had one first down.
“I have to do my job, and I guess I did it well on defense today,” Thompson said. “This is the end for us, and it means so much because we’re all going to be playing at different high schools next year.”
The Jr Celtics scored three touchdowns in the first five minutes.
Thompson fumble recovery set up a 19-yard scoring run by Anthoni Stefos.
“The coach kept telling me all the time that I better get a touchdown the first time I touched the ball,” Stefos said. “After I scored, I just thought he was right.”
His tackle of a Lockport running back was the first of three safeties.
“We did really well on special teams, and the kicking game and they kept having to start farther back,” he said. “After Dom (Brown) scored that first touchdown, we just thought we’re all together and we’re ready to go.”
Quarterback Michael Brown scored on a 20-yard naked bootleg, and was 4-of-4 on two-point conversion kicks.
The offense was so fast, efficient and optimized that Brown did not have to attempt a single pass. The attack flowed seamlessly.
”We had a fantastic way to start the game with that play that Dom made,” Brown said. “The offense did a great job of finding space. The holes were huge, and the offensive line did a great job.”
Illustrating how dominant the performance was the sharp and punishing play of the defense.
Even after a Lockport receiver made a spectacular diving catch for a 30-yard gain, the Jr Celtics responded with three consecutive plays for loss, of-5, -8 and -6.
Stefos, Thompson and edge rusher Kaiden Alexander created unrelenting pressure that stopped the Porters before their backs had a chance to take the handoff. The team was just flying to the ball.
Early in the second quarter, Stefos posted his second safety that pushed the lead out to 28-0. Thompson is unequivocally the lead back. He has company, like Bryce Robinson, a fast and elusive talent who has shown a great flair for getting to the edge.
Robinson ripped off a 25-yard run that set up the Brown touchdown.
Up and down the lineup, the Jr Celtics delivered, from the grunt work of the offensive linemen to the aggressive and athletic play of the defensive line and linebackers.
“The line did a great job, and we had the pressure that helped me make the plays there with the safeties,” Stefos said.
With the game out of reach, the Jr Celtics could do pretty much anything they wanted.
Furthering a 13U tradition, O’Connor allowed some of the offensive linemen to play out of the backfield and get carries.
Dominic Nemcausky ripped off a 33-yard run that seemingly set up a late first half touchdown run by Frank Vosholler IV. Vosholler was a little too exuberant and jubilant, running outside the tackle box, which is not allowed in league play with a four touchdown margin.
Robinson ripped off another 31-yard run in the second half that set up the touchdown.
“It was great that some of the other guys got a chance to carry the ball,” said lineman Graham Salvador. ”I’m really proud of the guys. We’ve done a lot of conditioning and worked hard at doing all of the little things to make sure we’re a good team.”
The score was also an eerie echo of what life is like on the other side.
In their last game of the season last year, the same group, injury depleted and dejected by how the season ended, lost 44-0.
The team has won its first two games by a combined 83-0.
”We have a lot more maturity,” Russell said. “We finished two years with a devastating four-overtime loss in a state championship game, and I think that carried over into last season. The coaches got together, and we said we had to rebuild not only as athletes, but the mentality.”
Practices that a year ago were sometimes improvised and loose are now direct, intense and very concentrated.
“Every single kid comes here ready to work,” Russell said. “The accountability for every player, and coach, is a level higher than they’ve ever had.”
The players feel a difference.
“I think the difference now is us feeling as one team,” Stefos said. “Football is a team game, and we’re not all out there trying to do our own thing. We’re playing together.”
The Jr Celtics 13U program had many standouts in the dominant Homecoming victory over Lockport. Those other players were Nolan Purtill, Christian Taphorn, Thomas Walsh, Andrew Lowry, Adrian Friscia, Kyle Tompkins, Benjamin Tiernan, Maximus Dukups, Caleb Griffin, Dominic Nemchausky and Robert Hauck.
The Jr Celtics varsity cheerleaders also showed great spirit and passion with their routines. Their members are Vivienne Andresen, Charlotte Fowler, Bevin Scanlan, Anais Nunnally, Eloise Morrison, Brianna Adair, Skyler Guinea, Luciana Kolenko, Gabrielle Migacz, Madison Varnado, Olivia Freyer, Ashlyn Woods, Charlotte Ozinga, Teagan Smith, Anya Stojak, Gianna Ponzi, Penny Oeser, Ella Dobbelhoff, Gianna Picciola, Mia Rhodes, Jessica Short, Chloe DiBennardi and Charlotte Mcdonald.
The sideline cheerleaders are made up of Peyton Leo-Johnson, Dani Samanich, Vivienne Brunette, Madisyn Singleton, Brooklyn Firlit, Cora Smiley, Caroline Murphy, Kelsey Niemeyer, Mila Cox, Brooke Copack, Juliana Jachymiak and Lucille Nelson.
