By Francisco Avila- Photos by Alexa Bordick
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase for 2 weeks at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p596456097 **
PLAINFIELD- Around this time of the year, a bevy of football programs throughout the country from College to Youth level are experiencing the honored traditions of Homecoming.
For some, its an array of festivities tied in to this special day. Lots of planning and preperation go into hosting such an event. Begun back in 1911 at the University of Missouri where Alumni were invited as guest attendees at their football game, Homecoming has sinced morphed into a big event over the years.
Some still keep with the original format of a parade to the stadium or field where a football game will be played, then after the game is a dinner followed by a Homecoming dance. Most just have a festive Football game with hopes for good weather and a great outcome to the highly attended and anticipated football game.
The Plainfield Saints are no different then all the other programs and would host several different teams during their Homecoming Day with twelve games featured on two football fields at several different age groups throughout the day. All was just about perfect accept for one thing. Mother Nature made her presence known early as it rained nearly all day.
Football doesnt yeild to rain so the full schedule of games proceeded.
The 7U-D2 Saints kick-started the day on one field while the 11U-D3 Saints were on the other. The 7U Saints hosted the visiting 7U Rockford Titans.
The hosts fought hard and came out victorious after a tight affair against the Titans with a final score of 13-6 on September 22 at Plainfield Central High School.
“It was a great win, just a total team effort,” said Plainfield Saints 7U head coach Antonio Wheeler following the team’s win. “I’m so proud of them, and we’re just getting 1% better every day. The Titans came out of the gate and scored first, and we were down, and the guys just said, ‘Hey, if we don’t let them score again, we’ll win the game.’” Like, that wasn’t something that had to be coaxed. They were just resilient on their own.”
Coach Wheeler also commented on the Big Dawgs Football mentality that the team has which they live by and gave them the win. “Big Dawg football, even though we are little, Big Dawg talks about the effort that we give. So they played Big Dawg football today.”
The opening quarter didn’t produce much until the last 30 seconds of it. The Titans used a powerful run to jump ahead 6-0 but failed on the conversion..
The Saints then responded in the second quarter with energy and confidence. The Saints defense stepped up their pressure and had a crucial tackle by Elliott Killelea which led to a fumble the Saints recovered.
The Saints were able to get on the scoreboad late in the first half. Samuel Hill took a handoff, found the sidelines and streaked 45 yard for the touchdown. William Blessen added the point-after to give the Saints the lead at 7-6.
“I played pretty good,” said Samuel Hill on scoring the touchdown and the team’s win.
Opening the third quarter saw the final scoring opportunity where Saints’ Jackson Zappa would take a run up the middle, scoring the go-ahead touchdown, uping the tally to 13-6 after the failed conversion attempt.
For the rest of the third quarter and fourth, the Saints were just holding their lead. Defensively, tackle after tackle kept the score in the Saint’s favor. Offensively, moving the ball and sustaining drives became more difficult as the Titans defense stiffened. In the final seconds of the third quarter Colton Lewis and Xavier Quintanilla made key tackles to maintain the lead.
Throughout the fourth quarter, the Saints continued to convey solid defensive work as both Samuel Hill and Benjamin Ericksen provided big stops which proved to be decisive in the Saints holding on to their lead, eventually winning the game, 13-6.
“I saw that on the first drive of the game, we weren’t going to be able to block them,” said Benjamin Ericksen on how the team played. “Then when we came back on the second drive of the game, we kept on stopping them.”
Every player performed to the level expected and played a great game which contributed to the Saint’s win. Those players also included Roman Wheeler, Maximus Rivera, Cameron Hunter, Giovanni Alejos, Colton Lewis, Ari Wahi, Liam Anderson, Austin Hayes, Casslon Alford, Isaac Gonzalez, Nikola Matic, Wyatt Nagel, Noah Biddinger, Roman Soria, Anthony Gamino JR, Ashton Huml, Giacomo Urresty, Asher Powell, Bronko Jumbeck, and Evan Sisson.
