By Bobby Narang- Photos by Gary Larson
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ORLAND PARK— Carter Erwin found himself in a familiar position earlier this month.
The Orland Park JV standout is capable of playing numerous positions on both sides of the ball because of his length, athleticism and high football IQ.
A year ago, in the Wednesday night league, Erwin was forced to play quarterback due to an injury to one of his teammates. Erwin said he gained valuable experience as the QB1 last season.
“One guy goes down and another guy steps up,” Erwin said. “Last year I played on Wednesday nights as a wide receiver, but the quarterback went down, so I played all of last year at quarterback. That experience taught me a lot for this year.”
Erwin showed he can handle a heavy load on Sunday afternoon in a home game against the Manhattan Patriots. Erwin scored three touchdowns and intercepted a pass to spark the Pioneers to a 30-15 victory at Seliga Field.
Erwin was all smiles in the postgame shed after receiving congratulations from his teammates and coaches. Erwin put his speed on display to overwhelm the visitors. Erwin fueled a 22-point second quarter with TDs runs of 8, 7 and 24 yards.
“I had a lot of good blocking in this game and I found speed somewhere,” Erwin said. “I’m not usually that fast, but I channeled something. My favorite play was the long touchdown run. I saw a big hole and got a lot of good blocking. My pick made me happy. It was a bad throw and got good blocking on the return. This was probably my best game of the year, or maybe even the best game of my career.”
The Pioneers (3-2) rode the strong outing by Erwin to a comeback win, erasing an 8-0 first-quarter deficit to cruise to a victory. Orland Park won the game in decisive fashion despite some struggles early in the game. The Pioneers did not build any momentum in the first quarter because of a series of bad snaps and fumbles.
“We told them mistakes are going to happen, but you have to overcome them,” Orland Park JV coach Al Krokos said. “I challenged them and we fumbled the kickoff again. We took some time to get going on offense.”
However, the offense got into sync in the final 1:30 of the first quarter, putting together a four-play drive which ended with Erwin’s eight-yard TD run on the right side. George Petraitis keyed the drive with a 45-yard run to set up Erwin’s touchdown.
Petraitis got back into the act with a recovery of a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, scooping the ball off the ground and sprinting 16 yards for a touchdown. However, the play was ruled dead at the point of recovery to erase the TD.
“I felt good running the ball and the I feel like the rain gave me a little boost to let me make plays I usually don’t make,” Petraitis said. “The defense was really able to get some pressure on the quarterback and our secondary played great today.”
Erwin awarded his teammate by tossing a 10-yard pass to Petraitis to the seven-yard line. Erwin took a high snap, raced seven yards for his second TD of the game. Later in the second quarter, Erwin scored on a 24-yard run to extend the lead to 22-8. Owen Garrity had a solid play on defense by recovering a fumble late in the second quarter.
Erwin did some work on defense, too. He intercepted a pass and added a long return late in the third quarter. The Pioneers immediately went to work to gain some cushion on their next drive. The seven-play drive featured a 14-yard run by Erwin, an 11-yard first-down run by Michael O’Connor and an inspiring 18-yard cutting jaunt by Petraitis. Lucca Morandi ended the game-changing drive with a 17-yard TD run up the middle, breaking a tackle at the 2-yard line to cross over the goal line.
Nick Pomonis added a fumble recovery to add to the solid showing by the defense.
“We told them we need our identity on the defensive side and that showed up today,” coach Krokos said. “We made some switches around and personnel, moving some kids into different positions to put us in a better, stronger position. We have a lot of depth and are using it and doing well with it. Carter did a great job. He was our Wednesday League quarterback all year last year. With Luke Krokos down, we needed him to step up. He did a lot of things well. But it all starts with our line, from Cody Godlewski to Lucca Morandi to Rayder Slabenak to Jude Morrar to Dominic and AJ and Christian Paulson to Michael Galvan and all of them. They did what we asked them to do this week. We told them to bring the aggression.”
Cody Godlewski, a two-way lineman, said controlling and dominating the line of scrimmage was a big factor in the win.
“We did really good,” Godlewski said. “I had a lot of adrenaline because it was my first game of the year. I was really happy to play. We are all very happy with the game, especially getting the big win.”
The fifth quarter game included a lot of action to thrill the arriving crowd. Quarterback Ryan Lukas was in the thick of the action during the two-quarter game.
“I think our defense really showed out today,” Lukas said. “We allowed a touchdown, but we did really good, especially our defensive line with sacks. The defense did good. They didn’t break many tackles, but our defensive line played phenomenal today.”
The Orland Park JV team also had contributions from several players, including Colton Gutkowski, Gunner McCarthy, Keith Piekarz, Thomas Sutter, Cooper Elslager, Joey Zotto, Will Poore, Emmett Kane, Jackson Biskup, Ameen Musa, Jase Enstrom, Patrick O’Boye, Talon Tyrakowski, Jason Erwin, Noah Cordoba, Christopher Medina, Andrew Richardson, Caden Kolodziej, Christian Paulson, Scott Gumienny, Laith Hammami, Dominic Gabriele, Dominic Lach, Collin Valan, Bradley Patterson, Vincent Shervino, Jimmy Elsberg, Connor Kvelland, Michael Ordman, Zechariah Torgerson, Jude Morrar, Rayder Slabenak and Adam Krokos.
