By Ed Muniz- Photos by Renee Kaspar
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FRANKFORT— With the River Valley Youth Football League playoffs soon approaching, teams want to be peaking at this time. With one week left in the regular season, you want to go into the playoffs headed in the right direction by closing out the regular season with a win.
In the Junior Varsity division, the standings show an unbeaten team siting a top followed by a one loss team and then a two loss team. Top three spots have lone occupants. If you look at the fourth spot, no less than six teams sit with the same 4-3 record.
Among those six teams are the Orland Park Pioneers. Dependening on the results of the upcoming weekend schedule, the Pioneers could go from the four spot to the ninth, all on whether they win or lose when they take on the New Lenox Jr. Knights Red ,who also sit tied in the standings with the same record.
After a dismal display against the Frankfort Falcons last Sunday, the Pioneers want to get back to adding to the winning column of the standings.
The Pioneers have been a team best described as a ‘Jekyl and Hyde”group. In their first four games, the Pioneers would win one then lose one, win one, lose one. After a pair of wins got them to 4-2 on the season, the Pioneers faced a Franfort Falcons team that stood a game behind them in the standings.
After four quarters of play and only one real opportunity to score, the Pioneers fell to the Falcons 14-0 and looked all the part of a defeated team.
“Anytime you give up a touchdown on the opening kickoff, its not a good start to a game,” said Coach AL Krokos. “At halftime we talked about it. It was probably one of our most unproductive first half we’ve played with this group and we were still only down two scores. We came out strong in the second half, marched all the way down the field; you dont put in the endzone when you need to, it puts you where you could end up losing the game and that’s what happened.”
A second half missed opportunity could have changed the outcome of the game. The Pioneers were unable to convert a touchdown from inches away, two sneeks got nothing and a pass-play was intercepted in the endzone, squandering the perfect chance to gain momentum and have a chance at a comeback.
“In the game, our team had a lot of fight in them, we just didnt have that edge, we couldnt get that edge,” said Coach Krokos. “We get that, this team can be really good, just didn’t happen but thats our plan this week, find that edge and keep it rolling into the playoffs.”
The Pioneers played uncharacteristically. In previous losses, they didn’t have the mistakes they had in this game. A kickoff returned for a touchdown, several misssed tackles on that return, turnovers through out the game and just poor execution when they couldnt afford to not be precise.
After the Kickoff return touchdown, Nicholas Peisker blocked the extra-point try that left the Pioneers trailing 6-0.
The following possesion, the Pioneers couldn’t get much going and would lose the ball on downs. One play later, Hudson Doftert got the ball back to his offense when he intercepted a Falcon pass.
After Pioneers Quarterback’ Luke Krokos connected with Anderson Matthews for 18-yards, the Pioneers would return the turnover favor to the Falcons when a Pioneers pass was intercepted to end their drive.
As it turned out, Matthews would be targeted throughout the game and was the most consistant player for the Pioneers offense.
The game headed into the second quarter with the Falcons testing the Pioneers defense on their 8-play drive. Tackles by Peisker, Max Streets-Pruitt, Doftert and Zachary Salah slowed the Falcons but didnt prevent them from adding to their lead. A 48-yard sprint gave the Falcons a 14-0 lead after converting the kick .
Offensively, the Pioneers just weren’t clicking other than the combo of Krokos to Matthews. The running game was stagnant, producing very little. Krokos did find Doftert a couple times but over all, the Pioneers struggled to move the ball with consistency.
On two of their first four possessions, the Pioneers loss the ball on downs while their other two were intercepted. The first half was one that needed to come to end sooner than later.
While the offense struggle, the Pioneers defense settled in and began to thwart the Falcons offense. Peisker led the Pioneers first half defense, grabbing 5 tackles. Doftert, Krokos and Streets-Pruitt also made several stops along with John Sutter contributing to the tally, he also blocked a punt late in the half.
The second half saw the Pioneers re-focused and began moving the ball. Using a mixture of runs and passes they went on an 10-play drive. Krokos to Matthews gaimed 35-yards on two pass completions while Dylan Ahmer got his chances running the ball and made it difficult for the Falcons to get good touches on him. His elusive, slippery running style and a will to get every inch possible saw him move the Pioneers closer to the endzone.
Two consecutive runs by Ahmer saw the Pioneers just inches from the endzone. With first and goal and just the length of the football away from scoring, Krokos tried a sneak up the middle, he bounced off his center and was stopped. The Pioneers tried another sneak and that too was halted. On third and goal, the Pioneers tried a quick pass but was intercepted in the endzone and brought back out to the Falcon 28-yard-line.
A promising Pioneers opportunity to close the gap and gain momentum with the score was snuff out like a candle in the wind.
The Pioneers on their drive used up the entirety of the third quarter and look their usual selves offensively but came up empty in the end.
The Fourth quarter saw the character of this team. Defensively, the Pioneers shut down the Falcons. Doftert, Peisker, Karam Olyyan, Matthews, Andrew Richardson, Sutter,, Noah Maslowiec gave next to nothing the rest of the game.
One Pioneers that gave his all throughout the game was Luca Morandi. His effort especially in the second half showed his refusal to give in or quit. Each snap, it was the final play of the Super Bowl. His want to win was second to no one.
“I’m just very mad right now, ” said an emotional Luca. “We need to play better and score when we get down there and have good blocking up the middle. We have to get the ball in there and run it in hard. If we score, we could comeback and win, I’m very frustrated. That team isn’t better tha us but we just played terrible today. I was trying all I had to help us but it wasn’t enough. We’re better than what we showed in this game. Other guys played hard, just a bad game.”
Unfortunately, the Pioneers couldn’t find that spark of the opening drive in the second half to sustain any threat of scoring on their next two series, finishing the game on the wrong side of a 14-0 final.
One of the Pioneers that did contribute was Anderson Matthews. The wideout was targeted several times and came through more often than not, hauling in passes from his quarterback. Matthews finished with 5 catches for 63-yards.
“I was just running the routes and making the catch,” said Anderson. “It wasn’t that hard, they had little guys on me the whole game, they were playing over the top, so I was able to get open easy and catch the football. I probably could do better running the routes and then after the catch getting more yards. I was just trying to make sure I caught the ball first. I think I can be faster off the snap too. “
Fifth Quarter action saw a couple of Pioneers perform well. The running of Nick Mase and Luke Tonra highlighted the Pioneers offense and Quarterback’ Carter Erwin also contributed to the Pioneers offensive display.
Other Pioneers that gave their all in the game or supported the effort from the sidelines include Vinny Ficaro, Cole Baldridge, Panos Kyros, Luke Tonra, Dylan Enriquez, Jase Enstrom, Carter Erwin, Carter Peluso, Tyjuan Hagler, Noah Cordoba, Nick Mase, Gavin Connors, Caden Kolodziej, Moody Abudan, Christian Paulson, Scott Gumienny, Cody Godlewski, Nicholas Dertz, Nick Pomonis, Samuel Horeluk, James Okrasinski, Ameen Musa, Dominic Lach, George Petraitis, Collin Valan, Bradley Patterson, Avery Vermilyea, Michael Ordman, Michael Galivan, Jude Morrar, Rayder Slabenak and Owen Garrity
The Junior Varsity Pioneer Cheerleaders were loud and entertaining throughout the game. The large squad gave the fans quite a show along the sidelines and also during their halftime performance. They include Brielle Lenzen, Natalie Brown, Addison Meyers, Aria Lasky, Ania Cunningham, Ellyana Connors, Frankie Ficaro, Natalie Kehoe, Annabelle Briseno, Annabelle Deloya, Lila Gavin, Leah Janota, Nadine Gazarin, Nora Velez, Charlotte Day, Margot Joda, Ella Kluever, Sydney Scharpf, Ayya Ramadani, Avery Seliga, Maeve Smith, Madison Davis, Sana Kishta, Lily Hahn, Olivia Hufford, Giuliana Bertucci, Annie Milosovic, Hayden Campbell, Katelyn Gallina, Avarie Schwartz, Peyton Meekma, Eivan Willis, Marguerite Ryan, Emilia Krol
