By Ed Muniz-Photos by Lauren Gray
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p468695801 **
TINLEY PARK— Football statistics can teall a lot about how a team is doing during the season. Week to week, a comparison can reveal where a team or player is excelling or where a team or individual needs to improve.
For some teams, it is essential because it provides objective, date-driven insights that can improve strategy, player-development and in-game decision. It can also provide factual trends over a period of times. Teams at all levels are exchanging game films too.
If there is a Championship to be decided, you’re using film even at the youngest level. The want to win is now as important to some as the safety of each player is.
Coach Pat Richardson’s Super Lightweight Pioneers are no different. They are affected by stats no different than others.
One trend that has come to light about these Pioneers was the difference of play from the first four games to the last four games of the regular season.
Initially, Offense and defense were playing at a high level on both sides of the ball. Offensively the Pioneers were finding the endzone often and scored 72 points in the first four games, while the defense gave up just 18 points total. They averaged in their wins scoring 18 points a game while giving up just 4.5 to jump out to a 4-0 record.
Their last four games, the script took a sudden reversal. The Pioneers offense struggled to score while the defense found tackling disappear. They now scored 19 points total, averaging 4.7 ponts a game and gave up 93 points, averaging giving up 23.3 a game. Youre not going to have much success doint that.
The Pioneers did win one of their last four games but the trend heading into the playoffs with a 5-3 record wasn’t going in the right direction.
Their opening round game of the 2025 River Valley Youth Football League playoffs saw them facing off against the Jr. Knights Black.
In their previous meeting three weeks prior, the Jr. Knights used a smothering defense and controlled play in the 14-0 shutout win.
Now in the Playoffs, the Pioneers hopes of returning the loss never got kick-started as the Jr. Knights used a similar formula and won going away, 20-6. ending the Pioneers season.
The game opened with a long 14-play drive where the Jr. Knights converted two fourth down plays to continue their opening drive, ultimately scoring a touchdown from 13-yards out, jumping ahead 6-0.
Several Pioneers made tackles which included Peyton Barbee, Quinn McCarthy, Mahmoud Abu Alshaikh and Henry Wade. Some managed to get multiple tackles too.
After the Bulldogs used up nearly the entire first quarter, the Pioneers looked to respond. Joey Guest and Sean Johnson on three tries went negative yards which forced the Pioneers to punt their first efforts.
The Pioneers defense did step up the rest of the first half. They allowed the Bulldogs a little success but maintained the one score difference until halftime after tackles by Guest, Royal Ward, Wade, Scooby Ballouta, Michael Maurella and Niko Scumaci did their part with stops.
The Pioneers had one more offensive chance prior to half but a defensive strip by the Bulldogs closed out the second quarter.
The Pioneers went to their offense to begin the second half but couldn’t mount much positive yards with a penalty making sure of that.
After the Pioneers short punt, the Bulldogs would again find paydirt. It took the Bulldogs five plays to go 19-yards for their second score of the game. The Bulldogs now had a 13-0 lead.
The Pioneers managed to advance the ball after gaining a first down but their series stalled after heavy pressure from the Bulldogs defense snuffed out four consecutive Pioneer tries that lost yards.
Losing the ball on downs, the Pioneers gave the Bulldogs a short field.
A 34-yard run on the very next play saw the Bulldogs ready to add to their lead. Scooby Ballouta and Maurella did all they could with their tackles but it was too little, too late. The Bulldogs took a short 4-yard run to ice the game and up their lead to 20-0 with 6 minutes left in the game.
To the Pioneers credit, they never quit trying to score. Their non-stop efforts resulted in them finally breaking through with Barbee going 86-yards down the near sidelines for the lone Pioneer score, brnging the new score to 20-6.
Ballouta, Guest, McCarthy, Barbee and Ward all added tackles prior to the Bulldogs running out the clock for the win and advancing to next weeks semi-finals.
All season, Peyton Barbee had provided spectacular runs. He led by example all season and provide some of the Pioneers best runs and scores. Unfortunately, he was limited much of the game until he finally broke free and prevented his team being shutout. Barbee led the Pionees offense in this game.
“My linemen were blocking good on that long touchdown I had,” said Barbee. “I was able to hit the holes fast but I got frustrated during the game because I couldnt make a cut before guys were on me. We just needed to hold our blocks better. I think thats why we had a hard time running the ball but we also had a lot of missed tackles in the game. No one had a bad game, we just didnt have a good game as a team.”
Beside Barbee’s defensive prowess, two other Pioneers stood out defensively. Both Scooby Ballouta and Royal Ward had a knack for being around the football and assisted on stops or made them.
Ballouta just gives himself up to make a tackle. Once he commits to the tackle, he torpedos in to make it. His tenacity is second to none on the team, his want to make a stop makes him fun to watch. His improvement from last season was certainly a plus for the Pioneers.
“I was just trying to make the tackles to help us win,” said Scooby. ” I saw where the ball was going so I tried to get there as fast as I could each time. I sometimes made the tackle too. We have a good defense but we had a hard times. We missed a lot of tackles today. I was trying to do everything I could. I think I played pretty good, just wished we had won.”
Also giving notice of his defensive abiities was Royal Ward. This two way player can provide good tackling, using his speed to rundown opponents for the stop on defense but also use his speed to out run folks in pursuit when running the ball.
“I like running the ball but also tackling guys,” said Ward. ” I think I’d rather play offense. I didnt get to run much today but I made a few tackles. We didnt tackle too well today, we missed a lot. We probably could have done better there and also done better at blocking. We didn’t do that. We never stopped trying and were working hard but we couldnt stop them all the time. We will get better next year, ill get better too.”
Fifth Quarter action saw Wren Ruciinski and Vincent LaPapa having outstanding performances. Each managed to advance the Pioneers offense while also playing stellar defense in their game.
Other Pioneers giving all they had were Stanley Bielawski, Jax Thomas, Max Kalker, Logan Biskup, Ryker Tyrakowski, Cade Rucinski, George Buffo, Nicholas Vuolo, Kitai Hubbard, Ethan Brandofino, Noah Hammad, Mahmoud Hinnawi, Dominic Dronzek, Abdallah Hasan, Henry Kruse, Shane McDermott, Thomas Richardson and Jibreel Morrar.
The Pioneers Super Lightweight Cheerleaders were on hand to support the players while also entertaining the fans in attendance. They include Normandy Golden, Maddie Battaglia, Everleigh Holdsworth, Hazel Nichols, Emersyn Ramirez, Piper Darin, Savannah Molina, Eva Garza-Perez, Olivia Raggio, Morgan Griffin, Nella Leithleiter, Charlotte Koehn, Lanie Hermann, Emmy Burger, Mia Mizera, Meghan Shilney, Lea Barbee, Chloe Fregeau, Haley Erwin, Eva Aubin, Siena Lang, Olivia Peters, Sofie Annerino, Hailey Valan, Jessa Alvarez, Grace Latronica, Ava Kolodziej, Emma Podoreski.
