By Ed Muniz- Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p251446908 **
ORLAND PARK— In their 2026 Wednesday Night Foolball League finale, the Lighweight Pioneers blue played host to the New Lenox Jr. Warriors.
Although the Pioneers have struggled in the Won/Loss column, their efforts have always inproved each and every game.
Many of the Pioneers gained valuable experience playing on Wednesdays. The full game environment that the WNFL provides and was formed for has been without a doubt a valuable learning tool for many of the players on both sidelines.
For the Pioneers, the numbers that caused two teams to paricipate this year at the Lightweight level, participating in the WNFL is used gain experience in a live environment while also learning the game, especially for the many new participants this season.
Also benefiting the Pioneers was the amount of volunteer coaching the two Lightweight teams were able to have. The Pioneers recognize the more assistance, the better the opportunity to learn the game was for each newcomer.
The October 7 match-up would go on to see the Jr. Warriors pull away from the pesky Pioneers and go home winners with the 21-6 victory.
The Jr. Warriors didn’t take long to get on the scoreboard once the game began. Just three plays in, they struck gold on a 66-yard sprint to the endzoe. Adding the extra-point, the Jr. Warriors were up 7-0 early on.
It continued to go bad for the Pioneers as they fumbled the ensuing play after a bad snap got away and was recovered by the visitors.
The Jr. Warriors next play went 18-yards before Isiah Holmes stop the runner with a tackle.
Holmes tackle lit a fire on the rest of the Pioneers defense who were completely shell-shocked to begin the game. The Pioneers proceeded to sharpen their pursuits and finishing off New Lenox tries with stops. eventually forcing the Jr. Warriors to lose the football on downs.
Rasheed Williams Jr., Moody Jaber, Sean Mendoza and Jayden Enriquez each made stops with Jaber’s tackle going for five negative yards.
After stopping the Jr. Knights, Quarterback’ Lawson Capps lofted a perfect pass that was cradled in by Isiah Holmes, he then raced down the far sideline going 91-yards before being pushed out at the four.
“He threw me the ball and I knew I couldn’t let the team down,” said Isiah. “I caught it and ran down the field. I kinda got a little gased and got pushed out of bounds just before I could score. I was trying to score but I was hurting a little. That would have been my first touchdown. I was still happy on that big play.”
The Pioneers would go on to score just two plays later when Capps took off left, rounded the edge and scampered in from 7-yards out for the Pioneers touchdown. A failed extra-point try left the Pioneers trailing 7-6 midway through the half.
The Pioneers defense was back at working hard to stop the Jr. Warriors next drive. Twins’ Wren and Cade Rucinski led the effort for the Pioneers each conributing with tackles. Also adding to the Pioneers defensive tally were Joey Guest, Jaber and Holmes.
Holmes was showiing all that he too can be a factor on the dfensive side. He added;
“My coaches tell me to go sack the quarterback so I do what they say, I sack em’. The QB was going to pass but I tackled him for the sack before he could throw.”
It wasn’t enough. The Jr. Warriors kept marching downfield headed to the Pioneers endzone and finally crossed into it after a 25-yard completion followed by a two-yard plunge to extend their lead. The touchdown and extra-point elevated their score to 14-6 nearing half time.
The Pioneers last efforts of the opening half didn’t go as planned, losing 5-yards of three tries then forced to punt.
The Jr. Warriors didnt fair much better in their final possession thanks to Cade Rucinski and Jaber. Both made big stops. Jaber caused a fumble with his hard tackle that lost 12-yards just before the break.
With the Score at 14-6, both theams headed to halftime trying to regroup and catch a breather.
The Pioneers offensive start to the second half was about as good as their first attempt way back at the beginning.
This time a holding penalty pushed them back to their own 20-yard line. After a short gain on second down, a tackle for loss by the Jr. Warriors pushed the Pioneers back 11-yards. Even a Wren Rucinski to Williams Jr. 23-yard completion was not able to sustain the drive and forced the Pioneers to punt.
The Pioneers spent a lot of time on defense during the second half and fatigue may have become a factor. Still, the Pioneers were tackling hard attempting to keep the Jr. Warriors from adding to their lead.
Wren and Cade Rucinski were doing their part, making stops. Luke Holoubek, Williams Jr., and Enriquez added tackles and a Holmes sack gave him a 7-negative yard stop.
The Rucinski twins were big the rest of the game even after the Jr. Warriors added another touchdown to up the score to 21-6.
Cade was a force and threw his body all over the field trying to make tackles. His ability to reach and hold on even headed out of bunds, spinning as he completed the tackle, showed just how committed to the stop he was.
“I was doing good at tackling, I was finding the guy fast and coming off the ball too,” said Cade. “I think we could have been faster and wrapped better to make the tackle as a team. I think we tried and we played ok. It was hard for me today because we have a lot of guys on the team and we should be making a lot more tackles.”
Wren provide his skills more broadly. He would take the occasional snap under center and also provide solid defense that grabbed him some tackles. He too gave all he could to help his teammates.
“I like throwing the ball. Once you throw the ball and they catch it, it makes you feel good,” said Wren. “I played QB for two years, so I like playing that. Playing quarterback, you are involved in all the plays on offense, so I like that I can do that. On defense, I’m the corner and mostly when they try running to my side, I go “Boom”, hit the kid, make the tackle.”
Several Pioneers gave all they could in this game. among them were many newcomers that have improved a lot each game. Among those giving their all one last time this season were, Peyton Barbee, Jaweed Abuzir, Landon Lawler, Paul Bertucci, Harrison Ramirez, Quinn McCarthy, Zachariah Baloutta, Brady Higgins, Lorcan Redmond, Paxson Leithleiter, Noah Radzikowski, Ian Frost, Luke Bosack, Johnny Waliczek, William Speck, Ammar Abdelmuti, Thomas Richardson, Moody Jaber, Ethan Hamideh, Noah Hall, Amari Adigun, and Dominic Maurella.
