By Ed Muniz-Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
**Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p976969896 **
The Orland Park Pioneers traveled to Chicago in week two of the River Valley Youth Football League schedule.
After a difficult opening week where the Pioneers dropped three of four games at home, the Chicago Blitz could provide the medicine to right the Pioneer ship.
The Pioneers returned home feeling much better after winning all four of their games, getting back to their winning ways that folks and themselves are accustomed to.
At Super Lightweight and Lightweight levels, the Pioneers won 21-0 and 29-0. Andy Rybak and his Junior Varsity regiment were next on tap, they too continued the Pioneer dominance on the field, dispatching the host, 31-0.
About the only thing the Pioneers struggled with was their conversion kicks, they couldn’t get the snap delivered, resulting in failed kick attempts.
“We need to work on our PAT,” said Rybak. “Playing a game like this gives you a false sense of confidence at times, the players especially. I thought the Wednesday backs, not all of them, need to hit the hole a little faster but it’s just great a day like today, you get everyone involved.”
“It was dominance on both sides of the ball, it’s tough to find many negatives, frankly, it’s kind of what we expected. We have a big game next week; I’m looking forward to that.”
The Pioneers jumped ahead quickly. A hand off to Enzo Angone went right, he hit the near sideline and took off, racing 60-yards on the long touchdown run for the 6-0 lead.
After four defensive stops by Terrin Lovitt, Colin McElligott and Caden Votteler, the Pioneers went back to their offense.
The Blitz as an organization don’t punt often, even when they were deep in their own territory. In four games they punted twice all day. Several times the Pioneers would begin drives on very short fields. This was the case here.
The Pioneers took over at the Blitz 20-yard-line.
Runs by quarterback Ashton Brennan, Angone and Ben Snider had them first and goal. Brennan took the next snap and scrambled 10-yards up the middle for the Pioneers second touchdown. Again, the PAT was unsuccessful leaving the Pioneers lead at 12-0.
“First time kicking today, it was hard, we couldn’t get the snap right, it didn’t really matter though,” said Brennan. “Running plays and handing off was easy today. We didn’t think it was too easy coming in because maybe they would be pretty good this year, but we played pretty good today.”
After a sack by Aidan Ros, the Blitz tried the air three straight plays resulting in an interception by Lovitt on the Blitz 15-yard-line.
Short fields are a disaster for opposing teams. The Pioneers soon proved why.
Even a bad snap that lost 12-yards, wasn’t going to deter the Pioneers offense. A wheel route saw Brennan hit Angone in stride on the 28-yard touchdown pass. With the conversion run by John Werner added, the Pioneers led 19-0 midway through the second quarter.
“It’s hard today, it was so fast, we’re on then off, scoring quickly, we couldn’t get a rhythm,” said Angone. “They’re kinda hard to play in, I like having a challenge. I’m happy that a lot of our non-starters got to play in the game, happy they scored touchdowns too. They will make our team better.”
The Pioneers’ defense was playing extremely well. The Blitz struggled offensively much to the credit of the defense.
Throughout the first half, the Pioneers were making stops or defending passes, forcing the Blitz into negative yardage.
Their first snap after the Pioneer touchdown saw them lose 15-yards on a Snider sack. Michael Sraga added to the negative tally with his tackle. A three-yard pass was quickly snuffed by Logan Herman and again, the Pioneers intercepted a pass, this time Werner snagged the football.
The Blitz was having difficulty moving their offense with the Pioneer defense being the main reason.
With time winding down in the first half, the Pioneers took over at the Blitz 25. Three plays later with just 17 seconds left, the Pioneers upped their lead on Luke O’Reilly’s 9-yard touchdown run.
The previous two plays saw Logan Helman rush for 6-yards and Henry Byrne add 8-yards on his carry.
Another PAT try failed, leaving the lead, 25-0 at half.
The second half started with a running clock. If one team is ahead by 24-points, the game goes into a running clock where it stops only on time outs or injuries, thus shortening the game.
The Blitz went to their offense to open the third quarter. With the running clock, they started at their own 30-yard-line, greeted with a hard tackle by Wyatt Heinze on their first attempt.
Going to the air, the Blitz found no success and soon turned the ball over.
Again, with a short field, it took the Pioneers just two plays to extend their lead. John Werner took a handoff and found the edge off his left end, side stepped a defender and dashed 33-yards to the endzone, extending the Pioneer lead to 31-0.
“I thought I was going to get tackled by their corner, he was right there, but I juked him, got around him and saw a wide-open field and just ran for the touchdown,” said the elated Werner. “I like to score. It feels good to get positive yards, scoring touchdowns feels even better and helping the team.”
The final play of the third quarter was another big loss for the Blitz thanks to O’Reilly making a tackle for a 14-yard loss.
Entering the final quarter, the Blitz were throwing the ball on every down now, with all falling incomplete.
The Pioneers went deeper into their bench and used a bevy of running backs including Nicholas Baniewicz, Brock Lenzen and Finnian Redmond but couldn’t gain a first down.
One last defensive tackle ended the game. Cade McNulty sealed the win with his tackle.
Other Pioneers adding to the victory were Ryan Beeler, Jude Doftert, Gavin Loman, Colin Kluever, David Kopec, Dylan Butler, Kyle Krokos, Charlie Enstrom, Ean Lavelle, Mason Overmyer, Luke Rybak, Keegan Fogarty, Drake Ulaszek, Laith Zughayer, Nicholas Davis, Luke Lakuch, Dylan Gavin, Ryan Marek, William Reilly, Qais Naser, Steven Mullins, Ryan Duckhorn, Nicholas Hertzog, Jack Bordelon, Justin McNamara, Erik Baran and Rhett Capps.
Cheering on the Pioneers and keeping the sidelines in good spirits while also entertaining the fans at halftime were the JV Pioneers Cheerleaders which included Carys Atraje, Aubrey Baran, Keira Barrera, Brittney Blazys, Brooke Blazys, Annabelle Briseno, Hayden Campbell, Giulia Cangelosi, Avery Carroll, Elliyana Connors, Charlotte Day, Annabelle Deloya, Darcy Dorigan, Frankie Ficaro, Emma Golonka, Delaney Grenda, Arabella Hernandez, Ariana Hinton, Leah Janota, Bianca Kapusciarz, Ella Kluever, Brinley Laniosz, Malayna Marable, Emily Minard, Natalie Ocon, Emma Overman, Gia Parisi, Emily Pastiak, Makayla Roman, Emma Ruisz, Luciana Rupp, Alyse Sparacino, Kamilla Ulaszek and Nora Velez.
