By Ed Muniz-Photos by Renee Kaspar
**Additional Photos are available for purchase at justallsports.zenfolio.com/2022pioneers.**
The Lightweight Pioneers had to face two opponents on October 23. Their On-field opponent was the H-F Kings. They turned out to be a difficult opponent but prior to that matchup, the Pioneers were battling another opponent, The Flu!
Missing several starters due to illness which included all purpose star Enzo Angone and starting Quarterback Charlie Enstrom, the Pioneers were short-handed in the season finale before heading to the playoffs.
Surprisingly, the Pioneers trailed early, but this is a resilient bunch that stuck to it’s way-of-play and came from behind for the 9-6 victory but it wasn’t easy.
Good teams facing difficult times still manage to come through when it counts and that’s what the Pioneers showed.
They seemed off some, missing the personnel that got them to 6-1 on the season heading into this game. The timing seemed off. The rushing attack lacked that spark although Nakahti Thompson was still giving his all. His touchdown run and dive in the second quarter would end up becoming the winning score, but still the offense was not its usual self.
Returning 2021 Co-MVP Ben Snider was playing in his second game of the year due to injury before the season started. It was evident he was working his way back to that form he had last year. You could see sparks of that during runs and his defensive play, but he is in catch-up mode trying to get his play up to speed. Look out when he does.
Back up quarterback Logan Helman was more than adequate but he hasn’t had many reps during first unit play this year, still his performance was good enough to lead his team to their seventh victory of the season.
Missing Angone was difficult to replace. The two-way star has been such a key player on both sides of the ball for the Pioneers that you simply can’t replace him, but John Werner gave his all and added to the win.
The game against the Kings started off with a bang! Before you knew it, the Pioneers were trailing 6-0 after a 71-yard run surprised them. A toss sweep to the Kings’ sideline beat every Pioneer who gave chase futilely, they never got within ten yard of the King runner.
After composing themselves, you never saw the Kings get close to scoring again against the Pioneer defense the rest of the game.
The Pioneers finally reached the end-zone after forcing a punt from the Kings. A 26-yard punt return by Snider set up the Pioneers at the Kings 19-yard-line.
Two runs by Thompson had them inside the 10 but a penalty pushed them back to the 13-yard-line. With under 30-seconds left in the first half, Thompson took the handoff toss from Hellman, got to the far sideline around right end and raced towards the end-zone diving at the pylon outstretched as the Kings defenders closed in, securing the 13-yard touchdown.
Snider powered in for the added conversion and propelled the Pioneers ahead, 7-6 with 24-seconds left before halftime.
A lot of defense featured the second half play by both teams. Neither team could establish or maintain drives.
The Pioneers were looking to hold up the lead and gave their all shutting down the Kings efforts. Luke Rybak found himself around the ball a lot, assisting and making tackles.
“Getting in a four-point stance has really worked well for me,” said Rybak. “I was watching the NFL players doing it, I watched high school games and saw some players doing it, so I started to do that, and it works a lot better for me than a three-point stance especially on defense. Of course, I like to hit people and make tackles, but I guess my blocking could be better.”
Ryan Duckhorn, Nicholas Peisker and Thompson were also having their way chipping in with tackles of their own.
Although the offense didn’t score in the second half, they used up a lot of time. They closed out the last 4-minutes of the third quarter and carried their 13-play drive deep into the fourth.
The defense would add the final scoring of the game when Helman secured a tackle in the end-zone, adding two more points to the lead which ended up lasting to the final buzzer for the 9-6 win.
The Fifth Quarter saw both teams score twice.
For the Pioneers, Quarterback Maximus Streets-Pruitt took the first play and raced 50-yards for the touchdown, He managed to get to the edge and hit the right sideline and took off for the score. He also added a run of 16-yards.
“I really like playing quarterback because there’s so many things you can do,” said Maximus. “The Quarterback has the ball more than anybody on the field. Sometimes if it’s a bad snap, I can still hand it off but there’s like five guys in my face so then I just take off. I think I can get better passing, throwing the ball is fun, sometimes they aren’t open, so I run, which I like to do with the ball.”
Zackary Salah also found the end-zone. He juked some and then streaked outward for the 42-yard score.
“When I got the handoff, I realized there was a bunch of players right in front of my face,” said Zackary. “So, I then cut it out and that’s how I got the touchdown. The best part of that was just running in the open field, it felt great.”
Defensively, the Pioneers got tackles from Brian Curran, Carter Bellik, Andrew Quinn, Anthony Baniewicz, Luke Makuch, Nicholas Hertzog, Gavin Loman, Ryan Marek, Muhammed Kassem and Kristian Willis, but the tackle of the game cam from Brock Lenzen who got through the line nd made a hard tackle in the backfield for a loss.
Other Pioneers contributing this game and the season are Dylan Butler, Vinny Ficaro, Evan Lavelle, Luke Tonra, Finnian Redmond, Karam Olyyan, Drake Ulaszek, Nicholas Mase, Moody Abudan, Hudson Doftert, Aidan Rios, Qais Naser, Steven Mullins, Justin McNamara, Erik Baran and John Sutter.
The Lightweight Pioneer Cheerleaders provide the half time entertainment. They include Aubrey Baran, Keira Barrera, Brittney Blazys, Brooke Blazys, Annabelle Briseno, Hayden Campbell, Avery Carroll, Isabella Castillo-Meza, 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.
