By Ed Muniz- Photos by Renee Kaspar
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Hosting the Aurora Gators in game three of the September 7 afternoon in Mokena, the 11U Mokena Jr. Celtics under the guidance of Coach John Milosovich, were looking to make it three in a row on the day.
Coming in, the Jr. Celtics were sporting a 1-1 record on the young Chicagoland Pop Warner season.
Last week, the Jr. Celtics earned their first win of the season. At Home they were looking to make it two in a row but in front of them was a tall task.
The Gators came to Mokena unscathed and had their sights of staying that way after their week 3 matchup.
The Jr. Celtics tried but too many mistakes and communication issues would send them to their second loss of the season with the 14-0 loss to the Gators who remained unbeaten.
“We just didn’t execute well,” said Coach Milosovich. “It’s the little things we need to clean up on offense and defense. Nothing to take away from them, they came ready to play, we just have to get better execution as a team.”
“We had too many penalties at critical times. I feel like this team is close, we just have to put it all together, work on getting better. They’re really working hard and learning a lot in their second year. It’s a work in progress. We are trying to get as many guys as possible playing so we don’t have guys playing both ways. We’ll get there and be ready.”
Two big plays were the Jr. Celtics downfall in this game. A 65-yard touchdown run up the middle on the very first play of the game and a 40-yarder for the second Gator score were all Mokena gave up but that turned out to be enough.
The Jr. Celtics struggled all afternoon to get any offense started.
The Mokena ground game was nearly non-existent, mainly due to the Gators swarming defense and quickness to the ball.
It also didn’t help that one of their key players (Christopher Neyland Robinson) went down early in the game.
The running game mostly consisted of Colin Bailey running left, right and up the middle, struggling to find openings; finishing with 23 yards on 13 tries with a long of 26 yards.
Quarterback Garrett Hansen called his own number a few times and he too found the running difficult, However, the Jr. Celtics did have some success through the air.
Hansen completed passes to Robinson and Adekunle Bobade for 37 yards on 3 for 9 and an interception.
Offensively, Mokena simply couldn’t figure out the Gator defense.
“I was frustrated a lot,” said Quarterback Hansen. “Our guys have a lot of speed so if they keep running, I will get them the ball but when they slow down or start to back pedal, I overthrow them. Our defense played great, and I thought we had chances, just couldn’t get our offense going. We just need to get work done on our blocking right now.”
After the initial touchdown to start the game, a pass completion to Robinson was the only positive play for the Jr. Celtics on their opening drive.
After the Saints punt, Jr. Celtics linebacker Bryce Kaplan was a terror defensively. His play saw him grab multiple tackles including one that lost 7 yards for the Gators that forced a turnover on downs.
On their next series the Jr. Celtics took the game into the second quarter. A completion from Hansen to Bobade grabbed 11-yards but that is all the Jr. Celtics could muster, trading a punt to Aurora.
Playing solid and stiff defense, the Jr. Celtics turned up the pursuit of the ball, making stops by Kristian Willis, Bobade, Colin Guisinger and a huge 9-yard sack by Kaplan. With the sack, the Gators were forced to punt as the first half dwindled down.
The Jr. Celtics were looking to maintain possession the rest of the second quarter but after four quick plays, they too had to punt as the Gators were all over the Mokena runners.
Now with a short field, the Gators were in good position to extend their lead but on the next play, a hard tackle by Kaplan jarred the football loose which was pounced on by Guisinger, giving the Jr. Celtics another chance before halftime.
Time kept ticking away nearing the conclusion of the first half. Four straight tries by Bailey netted him 28 yards and got his team near midfield. One last try by Hansen went for 8 yards but time expired and left the Gators up 7-0 at half.
Opening the second half, the Jr. Celtics went four and out on downs having little success on the ground.
Two plays later, the Jr. Celtics defense got caught napping and slightly out of position which saw the Gators runner score from 40-yards out upping the score to 14-0 after their second conversion point.
Mokena ended up having to give up the football twice in their two third quarter possessions unable to maintain an offensive drive.
The Fourth quarter did see a pick by Bobade to end one of the Gators drives but that to turned into a turnover for the Jr. Celtics as a Hansen pass was picked off just seconds before the final whistle which gave the Gators a 3-0 start and dropped the Jr. Celtics to 1-2 on the season.
Offensively, the Jr. Celtics never clicked and found the pressure and tackling of the Gator difficult to get around.
Defensively, Mokena did a very adequate job. Two big plays were the difference, otherwise, the defense played at a high level.
“I started to get blocked inside and sometimes pretty hard, so I’d fall down and then miss a tackle,” said Kaplan. I could line up more outside of them and then cut in, I just didn’t have the best game today after starting strong. Our defense played well, but I got discouraged when I noticed we were down 14-0, I just didn’t want to lose.”
The Jr. Celtics also saw efforts during the game come from Carter Bellik, Charles Fletcher, Micah Barnett, Gavin Collins, Easton Breen, Elliot Bodine, Nikko Triolo, Lucas Gravitt, Nathan Quiroz, Austin Crites, Lorenzo DeCarlo, Grant Smith, Andrew Chudzinski, Adeyinka Bobade, Asher Kokolus, Broderick Wallace, Matt Curry and Travis Delisle.
