By Patrick McGavin- Photos by Ken Dado
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p799679061 **
NEW LENOX— It is one of the fundamental lessons of sports that turnabout is fair play, as the common expression goes. What goes around comes around is another way of slicing it.
The Lightweight Blue squad of the Orland Park Pioneers discovered a hard and cruel lesson in payback.
“We just got caught out of position on that play, and could not really get there,” Luke Bosack said.
All the good work the Blue had put into a solid and satisfying performance was gone in a matter of seconds.
The Lightweight Blue played courageously and determined in their 12-6 loss against Mt. Greenwood Colts in a River Valley Youth Football League game at Lincoln-West West High School on Saturday, September 12.
“I think our team is doing fine,” Bosack said. “I told the coaches we’re doing just fine. The whole team is playing hard, and nobody’s down or anything like that.
“We just have a hard schedule, and we’re learning.”
The Colts scored the winning touchdown on a punt return with 1:40 remaining.
“I couldn’t make the tackle,” Peyton Barbee said.
The electrifying Barbee was the catalyst for the Pioneers’ near victory. He created pandemonium on the Blue’s sideline with his daring and dazzling 70-yard kickoff return touchdown in the second quarter.
It followed the Colts taking a 6-0 lead.
“I was running really fast. and I got some really great blocks out there.” he said.
Indeed, Barbee was running so fast his shoes could not contain him. The most remarkable aspect of his burst came over the final 30 yards— after his left shoe flew off as he raced down the sideline.
“The coaches didn’t really say which side to go to, but I just tried to go to the one that had fewer people,” he said. “That made it easier to score.”
The quick-strike action countered the Colts’ own score. More significantly the play just breathed life into a team eager to shape its identity.
Regardless of the scores, the Blue team has shown considerable progress each week.
The Pioneers nearly took the game to overtime despite missing some key players and being repeatedly handicapped by poor field position.
The defense was spectacular, allowing just one touchdown. The Colts also defeated the Lightweight Red team at Sandburg High School on August 30.
The Blue iteration of the Lightweights kept the Colts’ dangerous playmakers largely under wraps.
Playing out in space at cornerback, Barbee was just as spectacular on the defensive side. He repeatedly came hard off the edge, and made several excellent open field tackles.
He made four tackles, with three resulting in losses. One of those happened on fourth down.
“It felt great to make those plays, and I think it really helped build up the momentum for our team,” Barbee said. “We tried as much as possible to be really competitive.”
If Barbee made the plays on the perimeter, the rest of the defense did its part brilliantly. Linemen Amari Adigun, Johnny Waliczek, Dominic Maurella and Ammar Abdelmuti disrupted the Colts at the point of attack.
Landon Lawler, Brady Higgins, Ethan Hamideh and Zachariah Ballouta created havoc flowed to the ball, and did a great job of slowing the Colts down or neutralizing their attack.
Bosack was at the center as a roving specialist. He finished with six tackles, including two for losses.
Ballouta is the older brother of Suhaib, known as “Scooby,” the best player on the Super Lightweights team.
The two have their own gilded rivalry. The older brother’s nickname is “Zach Attack.” With Scooby working the sideline as a ball runner, the older brother strutted his own stuff.
“He has more speed, but I have more power,” Zach said. “The whole defense played great, with our stunting, and blitzes, and I was able to go in and make the tackles.
“We’re getting better every week. I think we just have to focus harder at practice.”
The play of the defense was all the more impressive given where the Colts began an average drive. The Pioneers’ offense was repeatedly caught deep in its own end.
That meant the Blue frequently had to face a Colts’ possession inside its own territory.
“We were shooting through our gaps and creating the pressure that we needed,” Adigun said. “I like to play with aggression. I like to sack the quarterback and get fumble recoveries.
“We were down after they scored. As soon as Peyton had the kickoff return, we were all hyped. We were excited to get right back out there.”
With their backs to the wall, the defense stepped up to the challenge.
“Our defense was really solid,” Abdelmuti said. “The line got pressure, and the linebackers were really solid. Everyone did well. We did some blitzing, the ends did really well, and we got some pressure on the quarterback.”
The offense was without one of its top playmakers in running back and receiver Lawson Capps. The team responded with ingenuity and new looks.
The starting quarterback in last week’s rivalry game against the Red, Thomas Richardson began at receiver. Bosack was the de facto quarterback running out of the Wildcat formation.
The Pioneers had some of their best actions running Bosack up the middle, drawing in the defense, and then letting Barbee do his magic on the outside.
Bosack is also dangerous as a passer. He threw a couple of swing passes to Barbee. He just missed on a huge connection with Richardson.
“We’ve been working on all types of different plays every week to fix the offense and get better,” Richardson said. “We’re trying to create more time and get throws off.
“The Wildcat is a pretty hard formation, because we have to memorize everything.”
Richardson went in at quarterback for a second quarter series after Bosack was briefly attended to medically after tweaking his knee.
The opportunity to get Bosack running downhill off the direct snap energized the attack.
“We’d been practicing the Wildcat the whole week, and the linemen did a really good job of blocking,” Bosack said. “The formation is not possible without our center making great snaps, but I really like getting the ball that way.”
The blitzes all worked, the ends and linemen got into the backfield.
The Pioneers engineered a couple of solid drives—penalties or breakdowns doomed the team from creating a consistent rhythm and flow.
The special teams were also brilliant, not just the return game of Barbee. William Speck had some booming punts that saved the Pioneers from being stuck deep in their own end.
The Pioneers had one final drive. Another big Barbee return set the stage for a possible comeback. Bosack was sacked on third down, and the team got caught in the backfield on the final play from scrimmage.
Despite the loss, the Blue team is slowly and surely coming of age.
“We are getting better,” Bosack said. “The whole team is getting better, our backfield, and the linemen.
“I think it’s just a matter of time before we just really start jelling together.”
In Fifth Quarter play, Rasheed Williams Jr. was the defensive star with a series of hard hits and aggressive play. He earned a special team distinction after the game.
“Everybody did their job,” he said. “We did our job out there, and did a good job of moving the ball and making sure to stop them when they had it.”
Despite the loss, the Lightweight Blue team of the Orland Park Pioneers featured many other outstanding contributors. They were Jaweed Abuzir, Paul Bertucci, Harrison Ramirez, Luke Lawler, Quinn McCarthy, Isiah Holmes, Joey Guest, Wren Rucinski, Sean Mendoza, Brady Higgins, Luke Holoubek, Lorcan Redmond, Jayden Enriquez, Paxson Leithleiter, Noah Radzikowski, Ian Frost, Cade Rucinski, Moody Jaber and Noah Hall.
