By Ed Muniz- Photos by Lauren Gray
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p232094208 **
MOKENA— Domination: by definition, it’s someone or something having supreme control, power or authority over people, a group or a situation.
In the sports world, having domination or dominating an opponent in most circumstances leads to victory. Teams work hard in the hopes of dominating their opponent, occasionally that happens but not often.
In those occurrences the games quickly get out of hand and the end result is the foregone conclusion. A team that overwhelms its opponent quickly has them at their mercy and they too also understand that the game or the situation is out of hand and accept that.
Football is a sport where one team can produce a dominating performance, It vanquished its opponent quickly. That was the situation when the Jr. Celtics 6U hosted the Leyden Bears on September 19 in Mokena.
However in this situation, you could easily say it wasn’t the Jr. Celtics team that dominated the Bears, It was mostly one offensive weapon, one individual Whose performance overwhelmed the visiting Bears. Sure the defense was stellar but was was their backfield teammate.
Runningback’ Roman Ramos put on a performance the likes you haven’t seen since Red Grange, jim Thorpe maybe, or even Barry Sanders. His memorable display of speed, agility and running produced 323 yards on 9 tries. scoring 5 touchdowns, overwhelming the Leyden defense who simply had no answer for him.
His sole scoring onslaught would provide all the Jr. Celtics needed in their Homecoming 34-13 victory.
Roman was the reason the visiting Leyden staff asked for the score to be taken off display and for extra-point tries to cease.
When asked what worked well for him in the game, Roman simply said “Touchdowns” and corrected me when I said his four touchdwns were impressive by telling me ” it was Five touchdowns”.
Ramos also added; “All of the touchdowns were pretty easy for me, I was outrunning them and they couldn’t catch me, so I kept scoring. I was faster than them. When I was on defense I was making a lot of tackles, I go in and see the ball and then I go in and make the tackle. That was easy too.”
Pete Franz team is improving each game as his team is playing better defense, swarming to the ball and making big stops while his offense is producing score after score, gifted with a backfield that smells the endzone often.
“Today defensively, was one of the best games we played all season, really contained well,” said Coach Franz. “Linebackers showed up, you saw Ben (Ramirez) getting through out there, did a great job with Wyatt (Harrigan) and the other guys cleanning up. Overall, very impressed with the defense.”
“Offensively, Roman showed up today, I give Leyden credit, their line was getting through and contained two of our guys, that doesnt happen to (Jackson) Pell and (Vynn) Hioller like they did, so give them credit. Fortunately, Roman made up the difference, he was absolutely incredible. He was one-sighted endzone everytime knowing to get outside. Just awesome.”
It wasn’t long Into their first series that the Jr. Celtics jumped ahead. Roman Ramos took a hand off, headed to left-end, got outside and didn’t stop until 65-yards later in the end zone. Vynn Holler added the extra-point to give the host a 7-0 lead.
Defensively, The Jr. Celtics started strong forcing the Bears to lose the ball after four tries due to the tackling of Ramos and Harrigan.
Unable to do much In their next possession, The Jr. Celtics defense was back on the field and once again the tackling of Rory Adent, Harrigan add two tackles for negative yards by Ramirez forced another Bear’s turnover on downs.
Entering the second quarter the Jr. Celtics were still trying to regain success of the first series, unfortunately, the Bears defense was preventing that, forcing a fumble and recovering it.
The Bears offense was being held in check by a stout Jr. Celtics defense. Harrigan, Ramos and Jonathan Zanta made quick work of the visitors , each making solo stops, this time forcing a punt.
Two plays later, Ramos took another handoff from Pell and once again jetted down the far sideline for a second 65-yard touchdown, Upping the Junior Celtic lead to 14-0 After Holler ran in the extra-point.
On the ensuing series the Bears finally reached the end zone but not prior to Lee Wilson adding to the tackle tally. With 45 seconds left in the opening half the Bears found an opening and raced to the end zone for their first score of the game. The Bears closed the gap to 14-6.
What seconds left in the first half Junior Celtics responded quickly. Using the clock wel,l they went to Ramos three times, the third resulted in a 22 yard sprint for his third touchdown of the game leaving just 4 seconds and the clock. The 20-6 lead gave the Jr. Celtics the advantage at halftime.
The second half opened with Ramirez and Harrigan both collecting tackles for negative yards. Their defensive play again force the Bears to punt. Two plays into their possession the Roman Ramos assault continued as he took the hand off again, finding the left end gap and raced 57-yards for his fourth touchdown of the game, elevating his team’s lead to 27-6.
Although the Jr. Celtics defense continued to make stops with Ramirez, Harrigan, Jaxson Cesek, Adent and Zanta picking up tackles, the Bears used two long runs to score again, making the game score 27-13 midway through the fourth quarter.
Two plays later, Ramos topped the Homecoming Day with a run around the right edge, stopping only after he crossed into the endzone on the 61-yard score, his fifth of the game.
Sitting with a 34-13 lead, the Jr. Celtics continued their aggressive play, adding more tackles to the game tally. Bassam Hoffman, Ramirez, Adent and Ramos each collect tackle until the final whistle.
The Jr. Celtics displayed dominating play on both sides of the ball producing a 34-13 Homecoming victory and letting other programs know, their depth is deep with someone else ready to step up.
Among the defensive stars in the game were Waytt Harrigan and Ben Ramirez. Each created havoc for the Bears and gave tackling opportunites to teammates as well.
“I don’t know what I did well but I was getting a lot of tackles, some really good tackles.” said Wyatt. “Maybe one of my tackles was easy but the other ones were hard. I like playing defense because I cana tackle them and thats what I can do pretty good.”
Ramirez line play was second to none in this game he added:
“It was easy to know that the runningback and quarterback were pretty fast so I had to cut them off to make the tackle and I just did that,” said defensive star’ Ramirez. “I was juking, I was strong and I was fast to get them. Blocking is what I was really into. One guy kept getting through so I got to block him and that was easy to stop him.”
Also contributing when called on were Kamden Franz, Zachary Stukel, Mack Wilson, Oliver Clegg, Ibrahim Matariyeh, Collin Regan and Karter Moore.
