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The Maroon Team hit the field on a very chilly October day! Maroon had some great runs from Mitchell Canales, Nathan Garrison, Ben Hansen and Jack Luchetti. This was, of course, thanks to the offensive line that included: Conner Dunfee, Ethan Pugh and Jacob Uhlmann. The defense was also tough as Bradley Bode, Nathan Garrison, Ben Hansen, Justin Hull, Nathan Hull, Eric Lovestrand, and Grant Meador grabbed many flags from the Hawks. Even through the Bartlett team was able to outscore Maroon, the play of the game was when Jack Luchetti caught a pass thrown by Nathan Garrison!YEAH! The last game of the season will be played at Mill Creek this coming Saturday! Great team effort!

As we approach our final few games, it is clear to see how much this team has grown and improved. The boys are playing with focus and determination. Saturday’s game against the Bartlett Green team, brought out the best of the Gold and the coaches did another a great job of preparing the team for this week’s game. In this writer’s opinion, there were 2 offensive highlights of the game. The first was a reverse that resulted in a 24 yard TD run by Pantano. The second was a halfback pass from Joey Pantano to Steven Arrambide that resulted in a 35 yard gain. The Star of the Game, however, was clearly Collin “The Tiger” Taylor. He was dominating when he ran the ball. Scoring the 1st touchdown of the game was just icing on the cake. In total, touchdowns were scored by Taylor, Pantano, Rupp, and Arrambide. We converted 3 out of 4 PAT’s all by passing. As everyone knows, the touchdowns would not have been possible without the guys in the trenches. Buza, Domenz, Sweet, El-Sherif, Birdsong, and Little were OUTSTANDING in their blocking schemes!!! As you should expect by now, the Defensive unit was not going to be overshadowed by the glamour boys of the offense. The Defensive unit of Sweet, Taylor, Little, Birdsong, Mack, Buza, Arrambide, Rupp, and Pantano were like sharks in a feeding frenzy. They swarmed the ball carriers and held the opposing team to only 1 TD the entire first half. 1-2-3….GO GOLD!!!

The first playoff game did not disappoint for a team peaking at the right time. Team Tolle saw scores on the first three plays on the first three possessions they had. The holes were created by the MVP's of the game the offensive line starting with Ryan "The Riot" Thiesse, Tyler "Tank" Johnson, Vance "Saber tooth" Dumas, "Big Nick" Tolle, "Lil Nick" Kortan, and Ben "Tooth" Anderson. These boys made it possible for scores of 45 yards by Jacob "57 Ketchup" Preston, 55 yards by Danny "Rocket" Buetow, and 35 yards by Carson "Blaze" Hughes. On the second score of the game Cade "Blanda" Callaghan kicked and made the team's first extra point of the season. I believe I heard chants of "Dairy Queen" screamed as the ball sailed through the uprights. This was a big moment for the entire team and coaches as it was practiced for two weeks. Congratulations Cade! On defense the first half saw a total of 5 total yards gained by team McDonald on the pursuit and aggressiveness of the defense. Team Tolle's defense of Carson "Blaze" Hughes, Ben "Tooth" Anderson, "Big Nick" Tolle, Cade "Blanda" Callaghan, Cody "Sniper" Mitchell, Owen "The Head" Hunter, Garret "Bulldog" Sanders, Tyler "Tank" Johnson, Jacob "57 Ketchup" Preston, Coner "The Hammer" Dixon, and Robbie "Golden Arm" Kortan. These guys consistently played hard each play of the game and can be each credited with a great game. With time running down in the second quarter Nick Tolle took a handoff and scampered down the sidelines for a 40 yard run to the opponent's one yard line. This was the longest run of the season for him and elicited a scream from the stands by a very happy grandfather. Next week team Tolle plays a tough Miller team and should be as fun as the first match up they had this season. Team Tolle improves their record to 7 - 1 and looking to the semi finals. Go Chargers.

The Bantam Big 10 team traveled to Cary's house to hand the Trojans only their 2nd loss of the year by defeating them 16-0. It was not without fight though as the Trojans held tough in the first half, but as we have proven in the past our team is relentless and you cannot hold the Chargers at bay for long. Offensively we moved the ball well but a couple of costly turnovers kept the game scoreless until the 4th quarter when we exploded for 2 big scores by Pat "The Bullet" Griffin, adding the PAT's - perfect on the day was the Coon Dog - Michael "The Boot" Cooney. Leading the charge in the backfield, Mikey "The General" Hohensee orchestrated 2 long exhausting drives and hard work by Thomas "The Train" Schroeder & Nico "The Hammer" Piaskowy kept Cary's offense off the field. Hats off to the "Black Angus Beef Boys" - the O-line was tremendous making game breaking blocks by Alec "The Cat" Champine, Dean "The Ravioli" Arriviello, Westin "High Tower" Wiseman, & Jon "The Glove" Sotirakopulos opened huge holes for our backs. But the real story here was DEFENSE BABY!!! Not one yard was allowed on this day as lightning blew from our mouths and we hit like thunder - the D-Line led by "Slippery" Tyler Storms, Spencer "The Mayor" Olson, Tommy "The Snake" Laduzinsky & Michael "The Jackal" Jaffe tore it up inside. DE's Nate "The Beast" Jimenez & Jack "Big Foot" Douglas shut down the D gaps leaving the Fall clean up to our LB's Lucas "The Truck" Segobiano & Peter "The Stinger" Ferraro. DB's Mason "The Missile" Alberts (also had a fumble recovery and a big run on offense), Chris "The Golden Boy" Edlund & Riley "The Torpedo" Anderson shut down the passing attack and preserved the shutout. The Chargers improve to 7-0. Week 8 brings the Chargers back home to face the 7-0 Crystal Lake Raiders in what proves to be the match-up of the season. Don't miss it!!!!

Our White team continued to demonstrate the benefits of hard work, perseverance and strong leadership with another solid victory. We got off to a great start in the second quarter when Austin Gift broke a long run for a TD, running through holes created by the crashing blocks of the offensive line of Kyle King, Kevin Weaver, Aidan Flynn, Cody Johnson and Cade Olinger. Then, with one minute left in the half, Coach Estrada summoned QB Jack Morgan to the sideline to discuss his “misunderstanding” of the play called, all the while planning for Morgan to become the receiver of a 45 yard passing play from running back Gift who threw the ball after getting the direct snap. 12-0 at the half. The third quarter was dominated by our opponent, and we found ourselves down 14-12 to start the fourth. Our defense once again answered the call, with impressive tackles by Matt Julseth, Jack Nitti, Joel Hardy, Chris Galena, and Abe Swanson. Then, we mounted a drive with Morgan connecting with Hardy, solid runs by Gift and Swanson (aided by Trace Debord re-joining the offensive line), and punctuated with a great catch by Nick Funk for a TD. 18-14 us. On the ensuing drive, our opponent broke a long play to the outside, and Charlie Downing came over from his safety position to make the saving tackle. Shortly thereafter, our opponent fumbled, with Morgan recovering to give us the ball again. The game was clinched with the same creative play having Gift throw to Morgan for a 40 yard touchdown. Swanson ran in the extra point to make the final score 25-14. We are peaking just in time for the playoffs, and look forward to future games and the return of standout player Alex Drumheller (recovering from pneumonia)…GO CHARGERS!!!!

The Middleweight Tri-City team of, JJ Reckards, Grant Schiewe, Bradley Thomas, Scott Robak, Nick Buseski, Jack Wassel, Sean Chambers, Anthony Lopez, Blake Saltsman, Will Porteous, Alex Bohanek, Matthew Ceinski, Timothy Roels, Nicholas Barron and Jesse Martinez, for the 2nd straight week we had a key player injured and unable to play. Blake Saltsman gave us a scare on Thursday nights practice when he injured his knee. As it turned out he did not injure his knee as bad as was thought. Further test this week will determine exactly the extent of the injury. We all wish him a speedy recovery. Grant Schiewe returned this week and although not at his best he did make a difference on both sides of the ball. Welcome back Grant!!!!!! We had many players playing positions they were not familiar with. All and all the team put in a great effort and came away with a 6-0 overtime win against the 107 Gies team. The offense gained a net 293 yards on 44 plays , while the defense held Team Gies to a positive 38 yards of total offense. We just could not get it into the end zone due to 4 fumbles in the game at critical times. The two team battled back and forth for four 4 quarters and ended the game tied at 0-0. Team Gies won the toss to try first in the Kansas City Shootout. They started out on the 10 yard line. Several false starts put them on the 25 yard line 1st and ten. On a pass they made up the yardage and ended up 4th down from the 1 yard line. The Purple defense of Grant Schiewe, Chewy Martinez, Matt Cienski, Will Porteous, Jeff Reckards, Sean Chambers, Scott Robak, Jack Wassel, Anthony Lopez, Bradley Thomas and Nick Barron stiffened and denied Team Guis from scoring a touchdown. The Purple team took over and with great blocking from the offensive line of Tim Roels, Grant Schiewe, Nick Buseski, Alex Bohanek, Will Porteous, Chewy Martinez, Bradley Thomas allowed our backfield of Jack Wassel, Scott Robak and Sean Chambers led by our Quarterback JJ Reckards to score on 4 downs to win the game. JJ Reckards with some hard running and great determination banged it in to the end zone for the winning touchdown and a final score of 6-0 . Regardless of how bad things are if you give your best on every play good things will happen. Keep the faith. Things will get better! Remember: GREAT THINGS HAPPEN TO TEAMS THAT BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES!!!!!!!!!!! PRACTICE HARD WIN EASY!!!!!!!!! Great job Chargers!

With fall beginning to show its colors, the team came to the field without the able help of Tyler Camp who was injured in the last game and will be out for the remainder of the season. On their first offensive possession, Team Birkhaug, foregoing the huddle, steamrolled down the field. Although there was good defensive play by Daniel Zielecki, Jacob Gabinski, Jake Llava, and Luke Doncel, Birkhaug was able to score a touchdown within the first three minutes of the game. When they could not convert the extra point, the score stood at 6-0. The momentum didn’t change when Birkhaug was able to recover the ball on an on-side kick. Despite effective gang tackling of the defense including Nathan Ohse, Chris Impson, Luis Martinez, Kyle Lorenz, Robert Kudlicki, Michael Hansen and Josh Leonhard, Birkhaug scored their second touchdown as well as kicking for two extra points just seconds into the 2nd Quarter. After we turned the ball over on downs, Birkhaug scored its third TD followed by a two point conversion although their drive was slowed by the tough defensive play of Llava, Gabinski, and Mitch Davey. When our offense again lost the ball on downs, Birkhaug was able to score again mid-way through the 3rd Quarter. Another two point conversion raised the score to 29-0. When our offense got the ball, it began to make some progress, with the effective running of backs Leonhard, Llava and Impson racking up two successive First Downs. On the next series, despite a great scramble by quarterback Lorenz, the ball was turned over on downs. Birkhaug was again marching down the field when Impson tackled a player in the backfield and knocked the ball loose which was recovered by Zielecki. Unfortunately, the team, despite the effective blocking of Matt Weston and Andrew Holzapfel, could not make anything happen before the game ended. Although this was a disappointing loss, the guys showed last week that they can win. Let’s look for victory next weekend in our last game of the season and first game in the play-offs. GO CHARGERS!