By Miles Toogo-Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p379729943 **
Coming into week 8 of the Chicagoland Pop Warner schedule, Coach Gavin McCarron and his 8U Jr. Celtics players hoped the playoffs would be in their near future.
At 5-2, their overall standings seemed to favor a berth in the forthcoming playoffs. Before that, they had business to attend to hosting the Portage Indians from Indiana.
A victory would most likely assure them a spot among the top six qualifiers, a loss, then their continued run would depend on the outcome of other games, needing things to fall a certain way.
Playing Portage out of the Northwest Indiana Pop Warner league, a win or loss would simply be that and not factor into the point system the Chicagoland Pop Warner League uses to determine playoff teams when multiples have same records.
As it turned out, McCarron and his team didn’t find out if they were in or out until Sunday Evening.
His Jr. Celtics dropped a 19-7 decision to the visiting Indians; thus, their playoff existence was in limbo.
After tallying up all the scores Sunday eveing, the 8U Jr. Celtics will be playing this weekend in the first round of the playoffs as Losses by Yorkville and Elmhurst moved them into a four-way tie and base on strength of schedule points mentioned before, Mokena secured the sixth and final spot in the 8U tournament.
“I didn’t find out until Sunday,” said McCarron. “I actually didn’t think we would get in even with a win because Yorkville Red was playing a less talented team and they had the tie-breaker over us as they beat us, but their loss and Elmhurst loss put us all even and it went to strength of schedule to break the tie.”
A victory in week 7 over the unbeaten Leyden Bears proved to be the key win that got them in. The points awarded elevated them past Yorkville even though they had lost earlier in the season to them.
“Towards the end of the year, we started emphasizing on our tackling. Last week our tackling was far superior to this week,” said Coach McCarron. “We collectively as a team really worked on our tackling. We have kids who are physical and will tackle well, we have a select few that do that, in the Leyden game it really picked up, this week, we seemed to have fallen off some.”
“Especially in these conditions, the little nuances come into play, like wrapping up. We got off to a smooth start, it was kind of like a balloon, we blew it up, let it go and flew fast by us and took us out quick.”
The Jr Celtics did start off fast scoring the first time they had the ball.
After beginning on defense. Stops by Michael Salem, Mason Akileh, Cohen McCarron and a sack by Camden Fitzgerald forced a loss on downs for the Indians.
A fumbled first snap was the only hiccup of the short drive which ended in the endzone just two plays later. A 40-yard sprig around right-end saw Akileh out the Jr. Celtics up. With the added point-after by Holden Reid, Mokena led 7-0.
The rest of the first quarter saw the Jr. Celtics defense dominate play. Tackles by Akileh, Zach Obeng, Keaton Katsys and a pair by Reid again forced the visitors to turnover the ball on downs.
Mokena’s second offensive opportunity didn’t go as well as its first, in fact, Mokena went the wrong way losing 8-yards, requiring that they give back the ball to Portage.
Portage immediately struck paydirt on their first efforts of the second quarter. A handoff would elude every Jr. Celtics and go the 45-yard distance for the touchdown. Failing on the point-after attempt still had Mokena ahead but only by the slimmest of margins at 7-6.
The Air certainly seem to run out of the Jr. Celtics balloon Coach McCarron referred to on Mokena’s next few tries. Add a penalty and for the second time in a row, the Jr. Celtics were trending the wrong way. They gave up the ball three plays later on downs.
Rushes by Reid, Fitzgerald and Akileh gained just 9-yards falling just short of sustaining the drive.
Immediately after that, the Indians scored quickly on the ensuing play with under two minutes left in the opening half. A short field saw Portage score from 38-yards out after the Jr. Celtics were stopped on fourth down instead of punting.
The Indians would take a 12-7 lead into halftime.
“We couldn’t seem to make adjustments in the second half,” said Coach McCarron. “With the tackling the way it was in the fourth quarter, we just didn’t have it in this game.”
Mokena came out looking to regain the lead. They went on a seven-play drive to start the third quarter but runs by Reid, Fitzgerald and Akileh were barely enough to maintain a controlled move towards the endzone. It soon fizzled out and forced a turnover on downs midway through the third quarter.
Looking to hold the lead at one score, Mokena gave the Indians just three plays behind the tackling of Reid’s two stops and a solo from Cohen McCarron.
Entering the final quarter, Mokena was still in search of taking the lead back. Unfortunately, negative runs on two tries and a fumble doomed the Jr. Celtics fourth quarter try.
Three plays later, Portage added to their lead after sloppy tackling couldn’t stop a run play that went 26-yards for the insurance touchdown and a 19-7 lead.
The Jr. Celtics last offensive effort ended the same way their previous two series had. They couldn’t gain a first down and lost control on downs.
Portage used the remainder of the time and sealed the 19-7 win.
“We lost ourselves, we started get on each other and that is on the coaches,” said McCarron. “That really was uncommon for our guys. Throughout the whole season, we’ve done really well of them staying together, here they were shouting at each other and kind of what was happening on the sidelines.”
“When emotion becomes a factor, especially with these young kids, some of them check in while others check out, it seemed the vast majority check out after we fell behind. As coaches, we should be able to adapt to that, of course it falls on us as coaches.”
When it comes to adversity, some kids step up while others at this age can’t. coach McCarron and his staff recognized that. These Jr. Celtics started off strong, grabbed the lead, but struggled when the adversity of being behind hit them. Some step up and have a want to come back.
Unfortunately, as the game wore on, that call went unanswered.
Other Jr. Celtics giving all they could were Quinton Collins, Aiden Cesek, Zakai Obeng, Angelo Cameo, Zachary Bal-Denton, Daxton Radja, Alexander Wallace, Henry Bass, Porter Ronk and Colin Petty.
The Pioneers will regroup and will head to Joliet West for their opening round playoff game at 11:30 am on Sunday October 22 against the Joliet Steelers.