By Ed Muniz-Photos by Morgan Gonzales
**Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p162533415 **
Wednesday Night Football League action was back at it for second week play on September 6 at Sandburg High School in Orland Park.
Playing host to the visiting H-F United Lightweight and Junior Varsity teams were the Pioneers.
The Pioneers came in having opened the WNFL play the previous week by winning all four of the level games. They looked to continue their winning ways at home.
The WNFL are games the give players who don’t see much playing time during the regular RVYFL scheduled games, an opportunity to develop and hone their skills and experience against opposing players of equal talent level and game experience.
Games are four quarters with officials and scores kept. The league concludes their season with championship games at all levels.
It was implemented several years ago and has been a great success with several players progressing, making an impact on their team’s success down the road because of the added game experience and development.
The Lightweight Pioneers opened the evening’s schedule.
Al Krokos team is successful because of their depth at nearly every position. From the starters to the Fifth quarter and WNFL participants, the Pioneers roster has shown over the last few seasons, they will challenge in every game.
This was no exception. The Pioneers were simply too much for the visiting opponent and at the games’ conclusion, notched their second win by shutout, 13-0.
Quarterback Bennett Brown ran a very efficient offense for the Pioneers. His ability to make sure his players were in the correct location and ability to get plays off against a visually larger team, was critical. It provided a leader at the helm who knew what to do.
Offensively, Brown and his running aces were clicking on all cylinders. Runningbacks’ Michael Ordman III, Carter Erwin and the return of Jase Enstrom from illness, had H-F defenders overwhelmed.
Two touchdown runs by Enstrom, a 52-yard dash and a 10-yard cut-back in the first half would holdup for the victory.
“The second touchdown I scored, the linemen did their job perfectly, they blocked and forced a big hole for me to run through and score,” said the speedster Enstom. “Carter Erwin also blocked the corner which let me cut inside first then outside, because of his block it let me get to the outside and run in for the touchdown.”
Enstrom has been a scoring machine early on. He also gave a lot of credit to the blocks he is getting from his line.
“At times it isn’t easy but then sometimes it kinda is because I’m getting great blocks from our line.”
Defensively, the Pioneers were again shutting the opposing offense down.
Several players contributed to the staple defense this group has shown the last two seasons, they just don’t give up much and are quite stingy for the most part. Occasionally they do surrender a big-play, but it isn’t frequently.
Among the tackles tallied up in this game, they came from a bevy of Pioneers, including Michael Galivan which also included a fumble recovery, Cody Godlewski and Ordmann III, who also had a touchdown saving, dive tackle.
But a trio of Pioneers led the defensive display. Luke Tonra, Nick Mase and Carter Erwin.
“I stayed back and if I saw someone get the ball I took off towards where they were going,” said the defensive ace, Tonra. “If they tried a sweep, id cut inside from Linebacker I was playing and cut them off. It was definitely working and once they cut up, it was easy for me to make a tackle. I love playing defense and tackling guys.” Tonra also recovered a fumble.
“I learned that every single time there was a wide outside, they always ran a sweep that way, so I anticipated where they would end up, to make a tackle,” said the active Mase. “I was at the right place at the right time. I reacted off the player and the direction he was going.”
“When coached called a blitz, I knew if I was in the A-gap, I could get to that QB, I’m fast enough,” said two-way specialist’ Erwin. “Open tackling is weird for me. I think I need to get better at getting through the line and finishing plays, because I love tackling the quarterback.”
Carter managed to also recover a fumble in the game.
Other Pioneers provide in the win on the field or there in support include Max Streets-Pruitt, Kristian Willis, Hudson Doftert, Anthony Baniewicz, Blake Schuler, Vinny Ficaro, Luke Krokos, Cole Baldridge, Vince Spizzirri, Carter Peluso, John Sutter, Lucca Morandi, Karam Olyyan, Noah Cordoba, Zackary Salah, Andrew Richardson, Gavin Connors, Caden Kolodziej, Nicholas Peisker, Christian Paulson, Scott Gumienny, Nicholas Dertz, Nick Pomonis, Yousef Yasin, Samuel Horeluk, James Okrasinski, Dominic Lach, Collin Valan, Muhammad Kassem, Dylan Ahmer, Avery Vermilyea, Nathan Campos, Jude Morrar, Rayder Slabenak, Owen Garrity and Brian Curran.
Wednesday Night Football League play continued at Sandburg HS as the second of two games billed was next to hit the field.
The earlier game saw the Lightweight Pioneers defeat the visiting H-F United squad. Now it was up to the Junior Varsity Pioneers to try and earn a sweep of the evenings’ games.
Last Week, Coach Andy Rybak’s Pioneers, behind the passing of Kyle Krokos, managed to comeback in their opener after being down 19-6 and won 20-19.
The Pioneers wanted to use that momentum of the late-game heroics to vault them into another performance that would garnish them their second win in two tries.
Again, Quarterback’ Kyle Krokos was key in the Pioneers second triumph, running in and passing for two touchdowns to lead his team to the 13-0 victory.
“I want to give kudos to Eric (Baran), he really stepped up his game,” said the raspy voiced Quarterback. “During pregame, we couldn’t get the snap down, it wasn’t working, but in the game, he was great. I think I’m very comfortable with him as my center. During the touchdown pass, I remembered last week , we ran the same play but he had two guys on him, but this time he was wide open, easy pass.”
“On the keeper, the offensive line needed to push for it to work, they did a real good job and the hole opened up. It was easy to get in and score on that play. I’ll get better practicing harder and working on my throws.”
After Krokos connected with Wyat Heinze on the 10-yard touchdown pass, the Pioneers 13-0 lead was as comfortable a lead as they would need.
The first half scores held up because of the defensive efforts the Pioneers put out. It seemed as if they had a goal in mind and not giving up a score was the main objective on the list.
Early on, Henry Byrne and Drake Ulaszek were keeping the H-F offense at bay. Their tackles limited H-F’s time of possession and kept the H-F visitors to minimal gains.
“The only thing we did to beat them after they kept running to the outside was blitz from the corner,” said Ulaszek. We had been practicing that to stop them from running outside. I just stayed outside and contain. I like to pursue and catch the runner on plays. I think I could run faster. I would say I played at an 8 out of 10, it was fun.
After the two-score lead was in hand, the Pioneer defense took over. Bryne, Cade McNulty, Logan Helman each contributed with tackles of their own. Layth Zughayer added a solo and came up with a fumble too.
With Ulaszek’s continued pressure, nose tackle Qais Naser took advantage of the outside focus and began slicing up the middle for his tally of tackles.
“I was at the nose, it was easier to make tackles from there,” said Naser. “I was shooting the gap, pushing people out of the way, using some muscle to get the tackle. I felt I did a little bit better today than I have, I improved in practice and in the game. I like defense a little bit more than offense, mostly because I like hitting people and making tackles.
The second half was a plethora of defense as both teams were now limiting the offenses.
Also coming into play were the number of penalties that were coming from both teams. Fatigue may have been the reason, but a lack of concentration and discipline were most likely the cause.
With Offenses shooting them selves in the foot, play was stalled, as neither could establish and sustain a productive drive in the third or fourth quarter.
With games lasting about an hour long, getting plays off was vital for any success. Both teams were better in the first half.
Although the Pioneers were physically outmatched, they were the more affective team running their offense.
Other Pioneers providing assistance in the game or the sidelines included Ryan Beeler, Jude Doftert, Gavin Loman, Colin Kluever, David Kopec, Dylan Butler, Colin McElligott, Charlie Enstrom, Ashton Brennan, Caden Votteler, Evan Lovelle, Mason Overmyer, Luke Rybak, Ben Snider, Finnian Redmond, John Werner, Keegan Fogarty, Nicholas Davis, Luke Makuch, Enzo Angone, Terrin Lovitt, Dylan Gavin, Michael Sraga, Luke O’Reilly, Ryan Marek, Brock Lenzen, William Reilly, Aidan Rios, Steven Mullins, Ryan Duckhorn, Nicholas Hertzog, Jack Bordelon, Justin McNamara and Rhett Capps.
