By Ed Muniz-Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
**Additional Photos are available for purchase at justallsports.zenfolio.com/2022pioneers.**
NEW LENOX—
EXECUTION!
Teams’ successes are the result of Execution.
It’s a staple in athletics that requires precise and timely actions that tend to result in reward.
In team sports, that word is the excuse used for winning and losing.
Its’ repetitious use in all sports, from youth to professional is part of the Coaching Almanac and readily available for excessive use at their discretion.
But, oh how factual it is in the result. Execution, Execution, Execution!
The JV Pioneers were a team of Execution this year.
During the teams winning streak in the first half of the season, the Pioneers were doing all that was expected or asked of them.
Penalties and mistakes were seldom. Players kept their play on the positive side, performing and making the stops, tackles, runs and completions that winning teams seem to do effortless.
Both Defense and Offense, had the Pioneers reaping the Winning Ways of success. The execution was key in their victories.
Tackles were made, passes were caught, runs were gaining positive yards and line play was stellar.
Jump forward to the second half of the season.
Misery decided to rest heavily on the Pioneers offense, spreading to all facets of their earlier successes, shutting it down.
The Pioneers final 16 quarters of play, that’s 4 games worth, they managed to score once.
It was simply too much to ask any defense to keep them in the game.
Now turnovers were showing its ugly face, Passes were difficult to get off let alone complete, receivers were running routes poorly, the O-Line was being overwhelmed, runs were gaining short yardage or none at all, and defenses were allowing long drives and big plays.
The Pioneers were in a funk that lasted through their playoff game.
Those earlier success because of team execution were now long gone and part of History!
Make no mistake about it, the JV Pioneers are a talented bunch, but being snake bit at the midway mark, changed the entire season but still, the Pioneers entered their first-round playoff game against the Jr. Warriors.
With all the difficulties of the second half of the season, here they were with a chance to completely turned their season around.
The Pioneers were upbeat heading into the game. Coach Tim O’Reilly had added some plays to their scheme in hopes they would surprise their opponent.
Earlier in the season, the Jr. Warriors zeroed the Pioneers, winning 22-0 by being the aggressor from the get-go.
In this game, the Pioneers started out passing. The hope was that if they could get the lead early, it could vault them to the win.
Getting the ball to the edge was vital, so quick passes from Jack Bulligton to Sam Basiorka and Mason Marable advanced the Pioneers to another set of downs.
“Every day as your body develops, my arm strength, it will get better,” said Jack Bullington. “My running ability needs to improve, it’s what I feel has to get better. I need to get myself in the best position to get our guys the ball. I think I’ll get much better. Perfecting the little things, size will come for us. My dad is 6’5 ”, so the size will come and I’ll get better and better as it comes.”
Of their first five plays, the Pioneers passed on four of them. A misdirection play left Basiorka all alone down field as the Jr. Warriors all flowed to the motion right.
Jack lofted a perfect pass that Basiorka hauled in with the closet Jr. Warrior trailing him by 15-yards.
Basiorka raced down the left sideline and looked to be a shoo in to score and give that early lead they wanted, but Basiorka kept looking back, which seemed to slow him down and was somehow caught and tackled at the J. Warrior 4-yard-line.
The very next play, the Funk shoed up as Marable took the snap and fumbled when he was met by several Jr. Warriors and recovered the loose football at the 10-yard-line.
That was the last time the Pioneers would get that close to scoring the rest of the game.
The Jr. Warriors used a long 45-yard run on their first play and later scored eventually winning 19-0, shutting out the Pioneers for the second time.
The Junior Warriors added another touchdown and a 35-yard field goal in the win.
To Coach Tim O’Reilly’s credit, he did have a solid scheme with several plays designed to create advantages for the Pioneers and a chance at big plays, but the execution of them always just missed.
Pioneers’ Offensive line was overmatched and overwhelmed throughout, which made it difficult to run and pass.
Defensively, the Pioneers never gave up, but they bent too much and struggled to get off the field when needed.
Tackles by Marable, Ayden Toth, Vinnie Annel, Jack Bullington, Basiorka, Kyree Gills, Michael Sraga and NIck Shamma didn’t let the Jr Warriors run away.
Once the Jr. Warriors took the lead late in the first quarter, they seem to know the game was in hand.
The Fifth Quarter was kinder to the Pioneers. Runs by Joshua Montell, Matt Bullington made the both the Pioneers offensive work horses. They advanced the ball each time they touched it. Colin McElligott also contributed with his nice run
“You wish you were on the starting team, but its kinda fun watching my brother out there with them.,” said Matt. “Its also fun playing in the Fifth Quarter. I just try to get better there and hit the guy in fron of me as hard as I can. I need to get more physical and get bigger.”
The Passing of Ashton Brennan gave the Pioneers some big chunks of yards when he completed a 22-yard pass to Caden Votteler.
“I had butterflies in my stomach before when I went in for the starter in the regular game earlier this year but now, I’m all settled down now,” said Brennan. “I go to Sandburg football camp to get better. Today I threw well today, I’ll get better.”
Votteler also caught another pass from Brennan that went 32-yards, with Votteler making a nice cut-back and breaking free of three Jr. Warriors to get to the end zone for their lone touchdown.
“We had one more play left, so when I was running straight, when I caught the ball, there was four guys around me,” said Votteler. “I pumped my legs to get into the endzone. It was kinda hard breaking free and scoring. Its not easy at this level. I do agility camps in the off-season to get better.”
Defensively, the Pioneers were led by Jude Doftert. Jude seemed to be around the ball a lot assisting or making the stop.
“At my position, I just need to read the offense and make the tackles,” said Jude. “The hardest thing in doing that is knowing where the ball goes. I’m looking forward to next year.”
Joey Driscoll also contributed with several tackles of his own. Luke O’Reilly, Layth Zughayer, Ethan Vinson (dove for the touchdown saving tackle) also made plays.
Henry Byrne recovered a Jr. Warrior fumble too.
Christian Czerwonka showed his experience He exhibited the ability to avoid blocks and be in on tackles and made it look effortless.
“I need to tackle a little lower, I was too high this year,” said Czerwonka. “I played more and got better this year. If I work harder in the off season, I think that’s what it takes to be a starter next year.”
Other Pioneers making plays this season include Ryan Beeler, Colin Kluever, Thomas Elliott, Kyle Krokos, Mason Overmyer, Wyatt Heinze, Dominic Gigliotti, Nicholas Davis, Ryan Almasri, Ameen Rayan, Alex Kantzavelos, Eli Citlau, Terrin Lovitt, Nicho;as Baniewicz, Nolan Burns, Mark Grech-Lisula, Santino Marrella, Nathaniel Owei, William Reilly, Jacob Oberman, Andrew Wojtanowicz, Dominic Rizza, John Curran and Brady Straka.
The JV Cheerleaders also gave their all the entire season. They include Alyssa Abed, Lily Carroll, Issabela Enriquez, Erica Gonsowski, Madeleine Heinz, Layla Jeffries, Madalyn Marable, Hailey McDonald, Liliana Minard, Lucy Moran, Avery Nugent, Maeve O’Connor, Paige Pomonis, Arianna Ramadani, Taylor Ruisz, Jordyn Shamma and Klaudia Willis.
