8U FALCONS EARN BIG WIN
The 8U Hinsdale Falcons soared past Plainfield by a score of 41-6 in Saturday’s contest.
The Falcons’ defense started the game by forcing a turnover on downs after Plainfield failed to convert on the fourth down of the opening series. The Falcons’ high-powered offense then delivered on the very first play from scrimmage when Connor Pauley connected on a deep pass to Cole Sherwood for a 7-0 lead. Sherwood would finish the day with three touchdowns, including two through the air and one on the ground, bringing his total to 10 touchdowns over the first four games.
Henry Gastevski, Luke Schroeder and Brooks Jaqua also contributed to the scoring effort, thanks to the impressive blocking by Hinsdale’s offensive line, including Parker Brey, Michael Cannizzaro, Wyland Holmes, Keats Caruso, Teddy O’Toole, Charlie Hillegass and Ben Vula.
The Falcons’ defense was equally remarkable, thanks to the shutdown effort on the edges by outside linebackers RT Kouba and Daniel Campbell, as well as corners, Sherwood and “the honey badger” Jaqua, who delivered several ferocious hits throughout the game. Luke Schroeder, who made his first appearance at middle linebacker, proved to be a spark plug for the Falcons’ defense. He was all over the field making tackles and also forced an early fumble that gave momentum to the Falcons. Meanwhile, the defensive line was disruptive all afternoon, thanks to the impressive play of Rocco and Duke Maggio, Michael D’Ombroski, Max Cantin, and Raj Chandarana. Broderick Slavik also contributed to the effort from his position at safety, where he made a number of hard-nosed tackles, and Parker Brey, who filled in at linebacker, was also a noteworthy contributor to the defense.
9U TEAM SHUTS OUT PANTHERS
In less-than-ideal conditions, the 9U Falcons took on the Downers Grove Panthers. Sheets of rain pounded Dickinson Field at the Hinsdale Central campus. Coupled with a cool wind, the conditions could only be described as miserable. But the Falcons would not allow the elements or the absence of two key contributors, Quinn Houser and Henry Appel, deter them from victory.
“Doesn’t matter if we are missing guys, doesn’t matter if it is raining — let’s do our jobs,” coach Andrew Appel told the team.
The Falcons offense heeded those words and scored on their first two possessions. Owen Moon, following blocks by AJ Siepker, Dean Windfelder and Brody Sobieraj, busted loose on a 40-yard run. That set up a Billy Jaqua 12-yard touchdown run led by a key block from Luke Wanless and Julian Tabuena. Wanless tacked on the extra point for a 7-0 lead. Big runs by Nate Morris set up a 3-yard TD run for Wanless behind a Jack Slavik block. A Moon run added the extra point for a 14-0 lead. With the steady downpour, soaked field and just overall tough conditions, special mention must be made to center Max Breton and quarterback Nate Morris for handling the exchange with aplomb.
The Falcon defense was unbelievable all day. The defensive line of Elijah Trombly, Enzo Allegra, JP Rago, Grant Garber and Tate Pitts were dominating. They combined for double-digit tackles for loss. Anything that did escape them was cleaned up quickly by John Dunn, Cooper Milburn, Will Jones, Massimo Buttitta and Kanas Zitkevicius. The Falcons kept the Panthers out of sorts all morning for a drenched and cold 14-0 win.
Improvement every practice and every game are still the main objectives for these burgeoning Falcons, but a few wins along the way doesn’t hurt.
11U Gold D1 still Undefeated
The 11U Gold (D1) Hinsdale Falcons kept their record perfect with a dominant 22-6 win over the Naperville Saints.
The first quarter belonged to the defenses. The Saints put together a drive but were stopped in their tracks by a Kellen Goodwin interception at the goal line. Luckily for the Falcons, Goodwin was just getting his hands warmed up. The Hinsdale defense continued to control in the second quarter behind strong line play from Sal Calandrielo, Oliver Johnson, Angel Roman and Brock Bradley.
Midway through the second quarter, it was the offense’s turn. Dillon Phelan (7/11, 111 yards, three touchdowns) found Goodwin with a quick bubble pass, allowing the speedy wideout to turn on the jets and take it to the house from 55 yards out, making it 6-0 Falcons. The defense forced a three and out and then blocked the Saints’ punt, giving the offense a short field. Off the sudden change, Phelan lofted a beautiful ball to a leaping Goodwin, who hauled in the 30-yard touchdown. A two-point conversion gave Hinsdale a 14-0 lead at half.
Naperville was able to get on the board in the third quarter after a penalty-aided drive, making it 14-6. However, the Phelan-Goodwin Air Express wasn’t done. With six minutes to go in the quarter, Phelan spun another dime to Goodwin in the endzone and the duo had their trio of scores. A conversion made it 22-6 and the Falcon defense secured the win, shutting down the Saints the rest of the way. The explosive plays were made possible by stellar protection from Torsten Wood, Sullivan Camp and Ben Kurinsky. The Falcon defense was led by Charlie Lynch, Jaxon Uthe and Grant Kirchheimer.
Hinsdale will look to improve in practice this week as they prepare for rival Lyons Township on Saturday.
11U GOLD D2 DROPS CLOSE ONE
On Saturday, the Hinsdale Falcons went into OST Stadium to match up against the Palatine Panthers. The Falcons had a great game plan but were stymied throughout the contest.
The Panthers marched down the field in their opening drive and scored with the help of a couple questionable calls and some tough running by the Palatine running back. The 12-play drive seemed to be stopped a couple of times by strong play from Rayan Sheik, ALex Vivanco, Dom Angeletti, Ryan Swietan and Giancarlo Turano.
The Falcons’ offense seemed to have some pep in their step with its exotic double wing running game. Grayson Danek busted the jet sweep for a touchdown but was called back with another questionable call saying he stepped out of bounds. The Falcons were committed to moving the ball on the ground behind Danek, Spencer Marnell, Matt Wiskowski, Johnny Trombly and Gavin Schuler. The Falcons accumulated more than 120 yards rushing on the day but had trouble finding the endzone.
The game went back and forth with the score stalled at 7-0 until the fourth quarter, when Brady Madden stepped in at quarterback and started pushing the ball downfield. Crafty passes to Spencer Marnell, Bennet Shepherd, Grayson Danek, Colin Boots and Leo Yanklowitz moved the ball efficiently down the field. A couple of strong runs by Wiskowski got the Falcons down to the 5-yard line. Madden moved the Falcons to the line, dropped back and dropped a dime to Danek for a touchdown. The gritty Falcons went for the two-point conversion to win the game but unfortunately the pass fell short and they were not able to convert.
This was an awesome effort by the Falcons. This team is getting stronger by the week.
The next game is Sunday at Hinsdale Central’s Dickinson Field against Oak Park at 2:30 p.m.
