By Bobby Narang- Photos by Renee Kaspar
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TINLEY PARK— The Orland Park Pioneers Junior Varsity team opened Sunday’s game on a high note.
The Pioneers were slowly building momentum on the first drive of the game, overcoming a rapidly changing weather pattern in a key road game against the Frankfort Square Wildcats.
Frankfort Square took advantage of limited offensive plays, especially in the first half, to pull out a 22-0 victory over Orland Park in the third game of the four-game day.
“I see us moving forward here once we get our assignments down better,” JV coach Al Krokos said. “This team never gives up no matter who we are playing or what the scoreboard says. Yes, the scoreboard didn’t look good at the end, but that was a real depiction of the way the game went. We played hard all game long. We did a good job also in the fifth-quarter game. We moved the ball and were able to stop them.”
The Pioneers’ offense suffered from an in-game injury to quarterback Luke Krokos, which hampered the effectiveness of the offense in the second half. Krokos was a vital player in the Pioneers’ second drive of the game, running the ball and directing the offense on the 13-play drive which ended with a missed field goal.
At the start of the game, the Pioneers dominated the time of possession, namely in the first half with a pair of lengthy drives.
The Pioneers started the game with an eight-play drive covering deep into the Wildcats’ territory.
George Petraitis had the big play with a 15-yard darting run to the Wildcats’ 30-yard line. Michael O’Connor added a three-yard run to get closer to the red zone, but Orland Park’s offense stalled and gave up the ball following an unsuccessful fourth-down play.
Orland Park center Rayder Slabenak said the offense proved worthy of moving the ball against a quality opponent, but they must improve in the red zone.
“We all did good as a team, but we have to hold our blocks better,” Slabenak said. “I feel we have to practice more, and we can get way better. Our first two games we came out strong, but these past two we came out too cocky and have to play hard. We just played a good team. We have to communicate more. That’s what I saw on two lines.”
Even so, the Pioneers’ defense made some noise on Michael Galvan’s fumble recovery to give the visiting team the ball right back.
On the second drive, the Pioneers were back to their bag of tricks, moving the ball down the field on a time-eating possession. The 13-play drive was full of highlight-plays, including a seven-yard run by O’Connor, a pass reception by Carter Erwin, another quality run by O’Connor, a strong third-down up-the-middle run by O’Connor to move the chains and get the ball in the red zone. The drive ended with an incompletion into the end zone.
From that moment, the Wildcats managed to grab ahold of the game to the delight of the Homecoming crowd. Frankfort Square scored a touchdown on a nifty short pass that ended with a 58-yard touchdown with 25 seconds on the clock until halftime.
The Wildcats tacked on another touchdown to start the third quarter to expand their lead to 14-0 with 3:03 on the clock. O’Connor had a first-down run of eight yards on Orland Park’s first drive of the third quarter before the possession halted with a bad snap on fourth down.
Frankfort Square’s lead ballooned to 22-0 after a one-yard TD reception midway through the fourth quarter. The Pioneers (2-2) had one last chance to get some points on the scoreboard in their final drive. With Jason Erwin at quarterback, the offense attempted three straight passes, but they lost a fumble to end the game.
“In the first half, we were able to move the ball,” Al Krokos said. “We weren’t able to put the ball in the end zone, but I thought we did pretty well early on. That one big play changed it. We had a lack of execution and couldn’t get back in the game.”
On the defensive side, Petraitis made several big stops. He had a key tackle on Frankfort Square’s final TD drive, while Michael Galivan was also in the middle of the action on defense for most of the game.
Cody Godlewski said it was a tough team for the Pioneers, most notably because of their recent winning ways.
“We had to do a better job holding our blocks and learn to snap faster,” Godlewski said. “We still have a lot of work to do, but overall I think we’re doing a good job this season.”
The fifth-quarter game was a back-and-forth battle. Ryan Lukas came up big
“I think I did good with the handoffs and not fumbling the handoffs,” Lukas said. “I was happy with one of our plays where we ran the ball really good on 23 dive.”
Fifth-quarter teammate Keith Piekarz said the team performed well in the opening game.
“My favorite play was getting the interception,” he said. “The quarterback threw the ball right to where I was and it was just above my head and I got it for my second interception of the season.”
The JV team had several players contribute during the week and during Sunday’s game, including Colton Gutkowski, Gunner McCarthy, Keith Piekarz, Thomas Sutter, Cooper Elslager, Joey Zotto, Will Poore, Luke Krokos, Emmett Kane, Jackson Biskup, Ameen Musa, Jase Enstrom, Patrick O’Boye, Talon Tyrakowski, Lucca Morandi, Noah Cordoba, Christopher Medina, Andrew Richardson, Caden Kolodziej, Anthony LaPapa, Christian Paulson, Scott Gumienny, Laith Hammami, Dominic Gabriele, Nick Pomonis, Dominic Lach, Collin Valan, Bradley Patterson, Vincent Shervino, Jimmy Elsberg, Connor Kvelland, Michael Ordman, Zechariah Torgerson, Jude Morrar, Owen Garrity and Adam Krokos.
