By Ed Muniz- Photos by Renee Kaspar
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p833150359 **
During a football season, there’s always key moments, plays or games that you later recall that worked out, affected or changed what could have been. You look back and sometimes think “if only” or “good thing”…
As players and coaches, that surely happens, maybe several times throughout the season.
A good play or a bad play, a key penalty or a call that did or didn’t go your way, something that sticks in your head, a remembrance of fortune or one of misfortune. It’s a moment in time each season that becomes an easy recall for that reason.
On November 5 at Lincon-Way Central High School, the Orland Park Pioneers Lightweight and Varsity teams would take part in the River Valley Youth Football League semi-finals with a shot of playing for a league championship.
Heading into the Semi-Finals, the last time the Pioneers had not been a participant of Championship Sunday was the premiere season they arrived in the RVYFL in 2015. Since then, they have been a fixture vying for league titles.
Prior to this season, the Pioneers had had finalists every year since 2016, winning five league titles during that span.
The Pioneers had three finalists in 2017, winning two championships at SLW and Varsity, and repeating the same two division Championships in 2022. The Pioneers captured another league title in the 2021 fall season at JV.
The Pioneers were used to winning and had multiple finalists in 2017 with three, 2021 Spring with two and two in the 2021 Fall season.
In 2023, the Pioneers again had all four of their teams make the League playoffs which has become the norm. Unfortunately, all teams would be eliminated during the playoffs prior to the league title games.
SLW and JV lost in the opening round while the Varsity and Lightweight Pioneers fell in their semi-final games.
The Lightweight Pioneers succumb to the New Lenox Jr. Warriors 27-16, while the Varsity Pioneers fell to the Frankfort Falcons 40-16, thus ending the Pioneers consecutive streak of Championship appearances.
For Al Krokos and his Lightweight Pioneers, their moment of remembrance may have occurred in their loss of their final regular season game. A game they were favored but simply were never in. With that loss, instead of being the third seed, they dropped to the fifth.
After winning their opening game the Pioneers would get another opportunity to face off against a nemesis they had fallen to earlier in the season. In that game, the Pioneers didn’t play particularly well so this rematch was an opportunity to even the score and play to their strengths with more at stake.
“They’re a good, strong, well coached running team. We had some opportunities to make a stop on their first two drives defensively early on, it just didn’t go our way,” said Coach Al Krokos. “Unfortunately, when you’re playing a team like that, you have to capitalize on those moments, we didn’t early and put us behind.”
The Jr. Warriors used a running game that grinded out yards and controlled the clock. Their opening drive to start the game would use up the entire first quarter. Surprisingly, the vaunted Pioneers defense simply couldn’t make a stop to end their drive. A fumble recovery could have changed many things.
After starting with a fumble which could have gone to the Pioneers but didn’t, and a penalty, the Pioneers had the Jr. Warriors in a fourth down situation. All they needed to do was stop the Jr. Warriors on fourth and three to get off the field.
A run of four yards continued the drive. The Pioneers found the elusiveness and determination of the Jr. Warrior runners difficult to stop.
New Lenox marched downfield the entire first quarter and finished their opening drive with a 5-yard blast for the touchdown early in the second quarter. After adding the point-after, the Jr. Warriors led 7-0.
The Pioneers tried to respond but a pair of runs around each end lost yards as the Jr. Warrior defensive ends were quick to the ball carrier for stops. Another attempt to the edge was also gobbled up for loss which forced a three and out for the Pioneers and a punt.
Those as it turned out were the only offensive plays the Pioneers ran in the first half of play.
The Jr. Warriors next series would become a 14-play drive that ended with them extending their lead to 14-0 on a 2-yard plunge and the added point-after.
The ensuing kickoff was lofted over the front line of the Pioneers, landing oddly. Several pioneers weren’t sure whether to recover the ball or let another teammate do it, the result was a recovered kickoff by the Jr. Warriors.
With 28-seconds remaining, the Jr. Warriors nearly added to their lead but an interception by Hudson Doftert ended the threat at halftime.
The Pioneer’s defense was collecting many tackles and at times were forced to gang tackle their difficult opponents.
Lucca Morandi, Zackary Salah all added tackles Jude Morrar, Dylan Ahmer, Cole Baldridge, Max Streets-Pruitt and Owen Garrity adding multiple tackles in the half.
Owen Garrity showed in this game what could be a very outstanding 2024 season for him. His overall effort was hard to miss as tackles and assists piled up for him. Besides Peisker, Garrity was also a force out there for the Pioneers defense.
“I play outside linebacker but when my coach put me on the line today, it helped me a lot,” said Garrity. “I was getting through the line pretty easily and when I did, I was able to stuff the run especially in the second half. It was kinda hard to tackle them. At times we expected a pass but then they would run and maybe we weren’t ready. We have to be ready all the time for whatever anyone tries.”
Jude Morrar did all he could from the line. His play had him assisting on several plays.
“I was getting in the backfield a lot. I was using my arm to hit the guy in front of me and then swim over him,” said Morrar. “I think it affected how their plays went because at times I was right there ready to make the tackle. I need to work on my positioning because sometimes they ran into my gap, and I was out of position. I’m very disappointed in this loss, we thought we were ready, we really wanted to beat these guys.”
One Pioneer was doing all he could to stop as many Jr. Warriors as possible was Nicholas Peisker, he would lead the defensive effort for the Pioneers with five tackles of his own in the opening half.
Looking to establish some offense after just three tries earlier, the Pioneers came out looking to score. A 16-yard run by Streets-Pruitt got the Pioneers moving. After an Ahmer run gained four, Quarterback’ Luke Krokos connected with Doftert for 21-yards on a perfect pass caught in stride.
What Krokos has shown that you simply don’t see at this level is the skill of stepping up into the pocket to avoid the rush and get a pass off. He displayed that in this game nearly on every pass attempt. He feels the pressure and instinctively seems to know when to create space by stepping forward into the pocket.
“When you have Max (Streets-Pruitt) and Hudson (Doftert) you’re throwing to and you can drop it off to (Dylan ) Ahmer, that’s an exceptional group that he is throw to,” said Coach Krokos.
The positive start was snuffed on the next play as a Pioneer pass was intercepted.
After two long runs, the Jr. Warriors extended their lead to 20-0. Tackles by Peisker, Doftert, Ahmer and Salah slowed the Jr. Warriors assault put didn’t prevent eventual score.
This became a game of “Not Meant to Be” early in the fourth quarter. A Pioneer pitch was fumbled, picked up by the Jr. Warrior defender and returned 65-yards for the touchdown and a 27-0 lead.
Although faced with a huge mountain to climb, the Pioneers never quit trying and it paid off shortly thereafter. After Streets-Pruit ran for 16-yards again, Krokos would connect with Doftert for 36-yards and a Pioneers touchdown. Andrew Richardson kicked the point-after which made the score 27-8.
The Pioneers defense added another score soon after. Streets-Pruitt picked up a loose football fumbled by the Jr. Warriors and returned it 76-yards for the defensive touchdown. Richardson added another kick which made the score 27-16.
Coming into this game, the Jr. Warriors had given up just one score all season. With the second score, the Pioneers accomplished something no other team had done all season; score twice on the Jr. Warriors.
The Jr. Warriors took a knee to end the game a short time later, ending the Pioneers season.
Emotional afterwards, several players showed how much the loss and conclusion to their season hurts. Hudson Doftert among them. After wiping his tears Hudson added,
“We all think we could have beat that team, we realize we need to put more effort because we all believe we are as good or better than them,” said Doftert. “They would send a couple blockers to our guys each run, then their runner would cut off whichever side they blocked to and get outside on us.”
“They were shifty and power running, so it was hard at times to bring them down. They had big guys; I need to work at lower tackles. I scored on my favorite play today. So that was good.”
“I told our team all week that that teams turns the ball over a lot and we might have two or three opportunities and if we scored on one of them, we would be in the game,” said Coach Al Krokos.
“We finally got in the game late in the second half but they controlled the clock the entire first half. We had some outstanding efforts from so many kids this year including in this game. We came out the second half and starting throwing, arm gets hit, throw is short and a turnover, just one of those things.”
In Fifth Quarter action, Christan Paulson and Vinnie Spizzirri led the Pioneers defensive efforts.
“I smashed my thumb today so I kinda had to push myself to make tackles today,” said Paulson. “I was around the ball a lot. I had the mindset not to give up on any play. I was pursuing all day to make a play. I need to put more effort in each play, but I still thought I did pretty well.”
Also doing his best was Spizzirri on both sides of the ball. He added,
“Today I was more motivated knowing it could be my last game this year,” said Spizzorri. “I wanted to play better today. I think I played pretty good playing off the block and getting in the backfield. I probably need to get better at cutting inside too much when playing defense. Ivery happy how I played today.”
Offensively, the Pioneers connection of Bennett Brown to Anthony Baniewicz produced a 19-yard touchdown for their only score. Also leading with his legs was Jase Enstrom rushing the ball and a 16-yard dash by Michael Ordman III.
The Pioneers Fifth Quarter/WNFL lightweight team didn’t get to participate in their playoffs due to a snafu in the schedule of a game that was cancelled. This is a team that could have won the title. Simply an unfortunate situation.
Other Pioneers who gave their all not only in this game but in fifth quarters WNFL games and the playoffs include Kristian Willis, Blake Schuler, Vinny Ficaro, Luke Tonra, Carter Erwin, Carter Peluso, John Sutter, Karam Olyyan, Noah Cordoba, Nicholas Mase, Gavin Connors, Caden Kolodziej, Scott Gumienny, Cody Godlewski, Nicholas Dertz, Nick Pomonis, Yousef Yasin, Samuel Horeluk, James Okrasinski, Dominic Lach, Colin Valan, Muhammad Kassem, Avery Vermilyea, Michael Gallvan, Nathan Campos, Rayder Slabenak and Brian Curran.
Despite the loss, this is a talented team, they have been for several seasons. This was a season that showed it. Although they didn’t reach their ultimate goal, the season was filled with several successes and a few bumps.
Among the successes was Dylan Ahmer. The first-year player opened many eyes with his play. His confidence on the field from the very first game and throughout the season, impressed his coaches. If he made a mistake, he worked at improving and not making same one again.
His ability to make an open field tackle by positioning and repositioning himself, allowed him to be successful and make the stop. This is a football player whose upside has no limit going forward.
Coach Krokos added.
“In the second half, we were able to move the ball on them, no one has done that all season against them. No one moved the ball on them, we did, we just didn’t have the plays in the first half. We gave up one sack against a very aggressive defensive team. We outscored them in the second half.”
“Our offensive line, from where they were from the beginning to the end, they were one of the best Lightweight pass-blocking teams we’ve seen in a long time, it really was amazing. Nick Peisker, Karram Olyyan, Cole Baldridge, John Sutter, A J Richardson, Brian Curran all improved and were outstanding.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of these boys, the season a marathon, you go through it, it’s a long time, so happy with our fifth quarter development, just great. Many first year players improved a lot. “
Also entertaining the Pioneer fans and performing throughout the game were the Lightweight Pioneer Cheerleaders. They include Gabriela Cabela, Isabella Cartolano, Madison Davis, Eleanor Dorigan, Kaylee Gaj, Paulina Goryl, Madison Hedger, Quinn Heinze, Margot Joda, Vera Joda, Adaline Johnson, Gemma Laniosz, Brielle Lenzen, Brooklyn Loman, Lily Maday, Santina Mannino, Molly McGeever, Emily Okrasinski, Kara O’Meara, Ayya Ramadani, Meryn Rucinski, Sydney Scharpf, Avery Seliga, Peyton Tomasik, Molly Utz and Alivia Zawada.