By Ed Muniz-Photos by Renee Kaspar
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Orland Park- Playing their first game at the newly constructed Schussler Park, the Junior Varsity Pioneers hosted the Tinley Park Bulldogs in Wednesday Night Football League action.
After an hour of play under the lights of Schussle Park, the participants of both teams met and mid-field, shook hands and went on their own ways, many expressing a look of dissaticfaction cearly visible returning to their sidelines as neither the loser or the winner in the 0-0 tie. A frustrating feeling of giving your all and realizing the outcome was much the same as practice..
Due to the time constraints the WNFL has, no overtime periods are played and a tie is registered as that.
The games first half fell into a strategic tussle between the two teams early in the game with neither team able to get into an offensive flow so, punts were used often by both teams looking to avoid the opponents advantage of good field position.
The first half saw four punts and a turnover on downs combined by both teams featuring some playmanship and some very good defense.
For the Pioneers, Noah Maslowiec was giving his all especially when push comes to shove. His interior line play on both sides of the ball needs a spark to get him going and then he uses it to motivate his play.
“When teams are driving against us or some kid drives against me, I get hyped up and motivated and keep my ground and dont let anyone get in my way and then I do the pushing,” said Noah. “I like playing inside the line because I hold the players out of the backfield when I’m playing offense and on defense, I love sacking the quarterback.”
Noah also added he felt he could improve his blocking offensively by staying low through his block. He’s determined to work on that and improve.
With no scoring in the game obviously defense was the dominant factor for both teams.
For the Pioneers, their defensive prowess in this game began on their first efforts. It took just three plays to show this could be a long evening for the visiting Bulldogs. Tackles by Finn Redmond, Gavin Connors and Dylan Ahmer forced a Bulldog punt and set the tone for the rest of the game from the host side.
In the Pioneers opening drive of the game, they were able to get a running game established with most of the running attempts coming from Maverick Vander Veer and Quarterback’ Max Streets-Pruitt but penalties affected a promising drive and took the early rhythm the Pioneers had and stalled the promising drive.
Their second series turned out to be a short three-play effort and they too decided to punt from midfield.
Nick Mase and Luke Tonra kept the pressure on the Bulldogs making short work of the next Tinley Park series and again saw the visitors play the field position game and punt.
Tonra was just beginning with his defensive efforts in this game. He seemingly couldn’t help but be around the ball assisiting or making the stop and was pebble in the Bulldogs shoe throughout the game.
“I think i was good at finishing off the tackle on the outside and helping out our guys when ever that happened,” said Tonra. “Sometimes they ran the ball up the middle, Well, I was right there to make the stop, I was around the ball a lot. I can see where the ball is going and make a good read, I like finishing plays but sometimes I over-pursuit. I’m working on that.”
Before halftime, the Pioneers mounted an 8-play drive behind the running or Vander Veer and Streets-Pruitt but a pass from Streets-Pruitt to Nick Mase produced 13-yards to move the ball as time was ticking away. Unfortunately, the Pioneers couldn’t sustain the drive longer after Tinley Park’s defensive efforts stepped up their pressure and eneded the drive at their own 32 yard-line.
Mase closed out the first half with a solo tackle.
Opening the second half, the Pioneers defense was tested. The Bulldogs came out and seemed determined to end the scoreless affair and put points on the scoreboard.
An 11-play drive began at their own 35-yard-line and saw them move up field with a steady running game to the edges, forcing the Pioneers back on their heels.
Tackles by Connors, Tonra, Streets-Pruitt, Adam Naser and Nicholas Dertz slowed the Bulldogs some but they still managed to get to the Pioneers 27. It wasnt until a tackle by Vander Veer on fourth down that the Pioneers eneded the Bulldogs second half opening drive.
The Pioneers offensive struggled on the ensuing offensive series until Vander Veer took a handoff, rounding his run around left end and hitting the sidelines for 30 yards. From there, the Pioneers managed to go backwards and had to relinquish the football after an incomplete pass at midfield.
Vander Veer did hndle most of the work load offensively for the Pioneers. He finished with 68 yards on 10 carries.
“I use mainly my speed, I think im pretty fast,” said the speedster Pioneers running back. “I enjoy being the runningback. I prefer running the ball over playing defense because I like scoring touchdowns. I just did flag football for four years, this is my first year playing tackle football. I mainly want to get better at tackling.”
Late in the fourth quarter, again the Pioneers defense would have to make a stand just to secure a tie.
After a long run by the Bulldogs that moved them from midfield to the Pioneers 20, the Pioneers defense again went to their reserve tanks. The next four efforts from the Bulldogs saw them gain a first down inching closer to scoring. Tackles by Mase, Ahmer, John Sutter and Vander Veer eventually stopped the drive at the Pioneers 16 yard-line.
The Pioneers made it harder on themselves with 1:19 left in the game, unable to move the ball much with the Bulldogs using their timeouts.
A fumble , a run for no gain and another that lost yards, the Pioneers had to punt from their own 5. The Bulldogs took over with seconds left and managed to get within scoring range with a run to the far sideline.
In two plays, Tinley Park was knocking on the Pioneers endzone front door from the 14-yard-line.
With enough time for one more play, the Bulldogs tried to run to the edge and score from there but Charlie Miele made the stop to preserve the scoreless tie.
Other Piioneers that suported or provide effort on the field were Marco Orozco, Hudson Doftert, Gavin Loman, Dylan Butler, Anthony Banniewicz, Cade McNulty, Vinny Ficaro, Charlie Enstrom, Evan Lavelle, John Sweis, Ben Snider, Finn Redmond, Carter Peluso, Logan Helman, John Werner, Panos Kyros, Karam Olyyan, Drake Ulaszek (injured), Zackary Salah, enzo Angone, Dylan Gavin, nick Peisker, Jacob Hyla, Brock Lenzen, Qais Naser, Steven Mullins, Nicholas Hertzog, Avery Vermilyea, Justin McNamara, Erik Baran, Jayden Spiotto and Brian Curran.
