By Patrick Z McGavin- Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
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HOMER GLEN— The first six times Hudson Doftert touched the ball, something positive happened for the Orland Park Pioneers Junior Varsity.
He sliced through the middle or got to the outside for sharp runs. He had 36 yards on those carries, seemingly ready to stake the Pioneers to a vital early advantage.
On fourth and short, he was stopped, the wrong kind of indicator. For all of the good the team managed to show, the Junior Varsity lacked the one dynamic or explosive play.
“It felt like the whole game we were one play away,” coach Al Krokos said.
The Junior Varsity saw its season end with a bittersweet 6-0 loss against the Frankfort Square Wildcats in a first-round playoff game of River Valley Youth League football at Kilmer Field on Sunday, October 19.
“We moved the ball, and we had the confidence, especially early, when we had those big runs, and I’m not sure what happened after that,” quarterback Luke Krokos said.
“They stopped us. We had some plays, but then there were calls the referees didn’t see or something like that. It just messed everything up.”
With the ferocious and cutting crosswinds, passing was not going to be easy.
The Pioneers loaded up, and went to their ground attack, alternating with Doftert moving between the tackles, Zackary Salah on the outside, and the end runs of Dylan Ahmer.
“I think we could have executed better on some plays, and gotten some more yardage,” Salah said. “Maybe we could have gotten more yardage and scored some touchdowns.
“The execution is not quite there. These defenses are playing us really hard, and so it’s hard to do some things offensively.”
Defensively, the Junior Varsity showed out, as has been its custom the entire season. Middle linebacker Nicholas Peisker is the heart and soul of the group.
He finished with seven tackles. Doftert and Luke Krokos came up aggressively out of the secondary to make big stops. Anderson Matthews, a revelation in his first year in the program as a two-way threat, also showed great athleticism off the corner.
On the Wildcats’ first play of scrimmage, Noah Maslowiec burst through for a one-yard loss. The Pioneers were clearly eager to extend their season.
After the promising opening drive, the offense stalled through the balance of the first half. The Wildcats strung together enough plays to make them pay.
A Wildcats’ running back broke free for a 15-yard touchdown run in the last two minutes of the first half.
The effort and intensity was clearly there on the part of the Pioneers. The team just lacked the one magical touch.
“I thought there was a bunch of time left even after they scored, and we were still in the game,” Matthews said. “I just tried to keep the team spirits up.
“I think our execution could have been a lot better, as well as our blocking and running. We just needed to do everything a little bit better.’
Momentum appeared decisively on the Pioneers’ side after Peisker recovered a fumble on the second half kickoff. Hope soared, but the offense could not take advantage.
Luke Krokos was pressured into an incompletion on fourth down.
“We could have executed a lot better,” Ahmer said. “We had a lot of opportunities with the fumbles, and the passes thrown, but we just didn’t take advantage.
“There were also a lot of unnecessary flags.”
The team was also handicapped by the absence of one of its most skilled playmakers in receiver and defensive back Max Streets-Pruitt, who was out with a leg injury.
With Peisker, Maslowiec, John Sutter and Lucca Morandi excelling on defense, the Pioneers remained very competitive, staying within the one-score deficit.
Matthews delivered the best offensive play of the game with a 23-yard diving catch midway through the third quarter. A defensive pass interference pushed the ball deeper into the Wildcats’ end.
Like the larger game, the Pioneers lacked the one vital play to break the game open.
“That’s playoff football,” Al Krokos said. “It’s never easy when you don’t win the last game of the season. You’re going to naturally look back and think about what you could have done better.
“They had some good drives, and that’s a good team over there. We were one play away from being on the other side of that, and AJ Richardson is kicking the extra point, and we walked away a winner.”
The team never lost its desire or hope to find the end zone. Until the closing seconds, on a disputed fourth down incompletion where Matthews appeared to be held up, the team fought valiantly.
“This was difficult today, but I really enjoyed being on this team, with my friends and teammates,” Matthews said. “I think we’re going to come back stronger from this experience and be better next year.”
The loss clearly stung. The players saw inspiration.
“The thing I’m going to remember the most is how hard we worked every day in practice, and how we made it to the playoffs,” Salah said.
The team resolves to go forward, and learn from the disappointment.
“We’re going to come back next year, and practice harder and be ready,” Luke Krokos said.
Running back George Petraitis was a standout during the Fifth Quarter with his running. He made a series of strong runs of 18 and 21 yards. Owen Garrity also made some big tackles on defense.
“The playoffs are pretty much the same,” he said. “You have the same guys that you play against. Everybody is trying much harder. The whole season was a good experience for me. Being able to jump up from this to the Wednesday games was really fun.”
Despite the heartbreaking 6-0 playoff defeat that ended their season, the Orland Park Pioneers Junior Varsity featured many standout contributors. They were Vinny Ficaro, Cole Baldridge, Panos Kyros, Luke Tonra, Dylan Enriquez, Jase Enstrom, Carter Erwin, Carter Peluso, Tyjuan Hagler, Karam Olyyan, Noah Cordoba, Nick Mase, Gavin Connors, Caden Kolodziej, Moody Abudan, Christian Paulson, Scott Gumienny, Cody Godlewski, Nicholas Dertz, Nick Pomonis, Samuel Horeluk, James Okrasinski, Ameen Musa, Dominic Lach, Collin Valan, Bradley Patterson, Avery Vermilyea, Michael Ordman, Michael Galivan, Jude Morrar and Rayder Slabenak.
