By Ed Muniz-Photos by Renee Kaspar
**Additional Photos are available for purchase at justallsports.zenfolio.com/2022pioneers.**
Birthdays: They come for all of us once a year. As we get older, we tend to want to forget the added tally to our age. As Kids, we looked forward to the special day because it is OUR day!
We could do no wrong on our Birthday along with the family and friend celebration that usually came with it, including gifts. Truly is a Special Day.
Nakahti Thompson was happy to share his Birthday with his Pioneer teammates and even led the way on his special day, helping his Lightweight Pioneers gain their second win of the young football season. Add the Wednesday Night Football League win this week, the Pioneers on the season are 3-0, 2-0 in regular season.
His two touchdowns paved the way for the Pioneer 12-0 shutout of the host Frankfort Falcons on September 4 at Lincoln-Way East.
“I count on my team to block for me, and they were great today,” said the Birthday Boy. “I trust my teammates. My coaches tell me to get to the outside a loti start inside then headed back out.”
What Thompson does well is he has speed and eludes many defensive players, but he admitted he could improve.
“I need to improve at seeing the field better, maybe work on cutting back on plays. I’ll work on that.”
Thompsons second score was a thing of beauty and caught the Falcons by surprise.
He took the punt on one bounce already heading towards the Falcon goal-line and grabbed the ball in stride, blazing past the coverage untouched for the 27-yard punt return.
“I just saw an opening and just went for it, we were already up so I just decide to go for it. I heard my coaches screaming to stay away but I saw the opening and scored.”
Thompson shows great instincts and demonstrates it all game on both sides of the ball. It’s what makes him a special athlete for the Pioneers.
The Pioneers used two first half touchdown to create a distance from the Falcons.
Charlie Enstrom guided the offense and was a leader running it. His ability to call the plays and get them off was spot on but throw in his ability to complete passes, it made things difficult for the Hosts.
“I thought I was throwing the ball pretty well and that’s because my O-Line was blocking pretty good for me,” said the Pioneer Quarterback.
“Sometimes its hard getting plays off but I’m used to it. I think if we can stay on our blocks longer, we will be very good. Our defense today was awesome. It was the best today.
The Pioneers opened the scoring at the 2:05 mark of the first quarter when Enstrom, from the Falcon 11, pitched to Thompson heading right, he made a move inside then outraced the Falcon defender to the edge. He hit the sideline and as the defense closed in on him, he dove for the pylon hitting it with the football and rolled out of bounds for the 6-0 lead.
Defensively, the Pioneers were dominant nearly all game. They gave very little throughout the first half and nearly the entire game.
It started on the Falcons first drive. Hudson Doftert recovered a fumble, setting up the Pioneers first score.
Enstrom connect with Enzo Angone for 23-yards. Enzone next followed that up with a 20-yard scamper then was followed by Thompsons’ first score.
Again, the defense was stout and gave very little to the Falcons. Drake Ulaszek along with Thomson shut down the host offense now in the second quarter.
After exchanging punts, Enstrom and Thompson were quite stingy to the Falcons giving up just a yard. That forced a punt that Thompson converted into points for the 12-0 lead.
Finishing off the first half, the Pioneers defense continued to dominate. Quick off the Line, they disrupted everything the Falcons tried.
Nose tackle Nicholas Peisker found himself in the backfield, at times nearly taking the handoff from the Falcon quarterback.
Enstrom and John Werner also made stops with Werner dropping the Falcon runner for a 5-yard loss.
Opening the second half, Thompson came up with the interception on the Falcons first snap.
The Pioneer defense did have a lapse as two runs surprised them which eventually ended up with the Falcons scoring via the pass, closing the gap to 12-6 at the end of the third quarter.
As the game moved on, the Pioneers interior line play began to show its presence. Both Ryan Duckhorn and Luke Rybak were key in the Pioneers closing the door the rest of the game for the Falcons.
“We gave better effort this week,” said Rybak. “I like going to a four-point stance instead of three. It lets me be faster off the ball so that worked for me a lot.”
“We definitely did better watching the ball and ripping through. When we were moved at halftime to different position, I think it made a big difference too,” said Duckhorn.
The Pioneers defense had several stars throughout the game. Tackles by Moody Abudan, Logan Helman, Maximus Street-Pruitt, Angone, Ulaszek, Zackary Salah, and Peisker all came away with tackles preventing much of the game from the Falcons gaining momentum.
The Falcons never threatened again with Thompson blowing out the candles with his second interception of the game late in the fourth quarter.
What a way to celebrate a Birthday!
Fifth Quarter action saw the Pioneers struggled to get plays off when they had the ball. Carter Bellik did provide a highlight when he managed to for 17-yards but for the most part, the fifth Quarter Pioneer offense was out of sync and never came close to scoring.
Defensively, the Pioneer line had a pretty good performance. Aidan Rios, Andrew Quinn, Muhammed Kassem, Ryan Marek and Moody Abudan were giving their all on every play. Tackles by Cade Judeh, Luke Makuch, Carter Bellik, a tackle at the goal-line by Anthony Baniewicz, Rios, Makuuch, Quinn and Gavin Loman also limited the Falcons.
Other Pioneers giving their all were Kristian Willis, Vinny Ficaro, Evan Levelle, Luke Tonra, Finnian Redmond, Carter Peluso, Karam Olyyan, Nicholas Mase, Nicholas Hertzog, Brock Lenzen, Qais Naser, Steven Mullins, Justin McNamara, Erik Baran, Brian Curran and John Sutter.
“The Defense is getting better which is an impressive statement,” said Coach Andy Rybak. “We had gone through with the Linebackers and the ends especially about containing and staying in their assigned gap reponsibilities, and they were doing that. If everybody does their job, we have the athletes to make plays.”
“We have some talented players with some taleted coaches. We had guys that stepped in when a starter went down and they did the job. Great to have depth.”
Cheering on the Pioneers were Aubrey Baran, Keira Berrera, Brittney Blazys, Brooke Blazys, Annabelle Briseno, Hayden Cmapbell, Avery Carroll, Isabelle Castillo-Mez, Frankie Ficaro, Emma Golonka, Delaney Grenda, Tessa Heinze, Arabella Hernandez, Bianca Kapusciarz, Brinley Laniosz, Malayna Marable, Gabriella Milosovic, Emily Minard, Eleanor Nothnagel, Emma OVerman, Makayla Roman, Emma Ruisz and Kamilla Ulaszek.
