Worth-Ridge Panthers: Game Summaries

A beautiful Sunday for football in Chicago as the Panthers kicked off the season against the Blitz.  The outcome wouldnt be as enjoyable. 

The Super Pee-Wees started their season with a two touchdown defeat but showed signs of making some good things happen on the instructional level. 

As for the Pee-Wees, minus their Defensive Drill Sargeant, mustered up the only touchdown of the weekend for the Panthers on a nice run by O'Sullivan, who also tacked on the P.A.T.. They kept it close but just couldnt keep up with the speed of the Blitz. Final score was 26-7.  Coach Doyle and the boys will gear em up with Coach Lito gone for one more week.

 The Widgets seemed as if they were going to be the team to break the streak when they came out forcing turnovers and stuffing every play the Blitz threw at them.  But with a stingy defensive attack by the Blitz and a big TD before half helped them gain the momentum and didnt look back.  Final Score 19-0. The "swinging gate" offense though that hasnt been ran in youth football since the late 60's was used.  A much better team than they showed on Sunday and will prove it this week.

The Juniors have some work to do but they showed alot of heart on Sunday.  They came out a little sloppy and the Blitz jumped on them 21-0 going into halftime.  But in the second half they would figure it out defensively and push the ball downfield a little bit on offense.  We'll see if they work hard enough to get over the hump this year.  They would end up losing 21-0.

 The Panther' season-opener didnt quite go as well as anticipated but there's still high expectations for the 2009 campaign.  The Panthers will play their home-opener Sunday when they host the Blue Island Untouchables at the Home Field on Beloit.

This weekend was the weekend for the Panthers to prove that week 1 was and fluke and take it out on the Untouchables.  Some hard fought games were played and the Panthers pulled out their first win of the season.

 The Super Pee-Wees started out the afternoon as they always do with a tough, hard fought effort.  They played very hard and are improving every week. Good job boys!

The Pee-Wee game was a great game from the start.  BIU came out and established their ground attack early and jumped on the Panthers.  But a disciplined coached defense would tighten up and Coach Doyle's offense would come to life as the Panthers would make it a ballgame with TD runs by Pat Doyle and Sebastian "Sea Bass" Castro.  BIU would hang on to defeat the Panthers 26-13.  But there is a much anticipated return for Coach Lito this week to gather a gameplan for the Titans.

Widgets would end the streak and pull off an exciting win Sunday.  The game went back and forth with smashmouth football, turnovers, and punishing defenses from both squads.  Forty minutes would not be enough time to resolve this hard fought battle, as time expired in regulation as the score was 0-0.  The MYFL rules for overtime mirror those of the high school level and the Untouchables would have the ball 1st and Goal on the 10.  But Coach Brent's swarming defense would prevail once again and stuff BIU four consecutive plays.  Now, it was time for the Offense to step it up as they needed a score to get their first win of the season, and Coach Trout scripted a great call for Gavin Dehnim to take it up the middle on the first play and that would be the difference , as the Panthers would win 6-0 in overtime.  Congrats on the Victory!

Panthers Junior team would come out very tough to start their game as they controlled the ball most of the first quarter but were unable to score.  The Untouchables would gain control after that and jump out to 18-0 halftime lead.  The Juniors would settle in on offense a bit and may have found some things to build off of for the remainder of the season.  We'll see if Coach Baz & company can turn these boys around and start to play football the way they are capable of playing.

 Week 2 in the books and all the Panthers teams are still looking to play their best football.  They will try to showcase that this weekend under the lights. The Panthers travel to Burbank to do battle with Titans on Saturday night.  Good Luck boys!

There was excitement for football under the lights in Burbank on Saturday night as the Panthers and Titans would do battle.  There were some great games played by both teams as the two divisional foes would certainly not disappoint. 

The Super Pee-Wees fought very hard again for the third week and showed a lot of heart

and improvement.  They were unable to beat the Titans but it certainly looks like a win

is in their near future. Good work boys!

The Pee-Wee game was definitely the game of the night as it would take Overtime to dedtermine a winner in this one.  The Panthers would match touchdowns and a PAT with Burbank to make the game 13-13 at the end of regulation.  There were touchdown runs but Mikey O’Sullivan and George Lopez. In overtime, the Panthers would get the ball first and score on the first play with a nice run by Lopez again and Coach Doyle and the boys needed one stop on D to pick up their first win of the 2009 campaign.  But on 4^th down the Titans would run a reverse and score with ease which forced a 2^nd OT.  The Panthers would lose 10 yards and the Titans would run two plays and kneel their last two to beat the Panthers by the “Penetration” rule in 2 Ots. As the Widgets were doing the coin toss the refs would get together and realize the rule is no longer valid in this league and the team needs to score to win. So, the boys would strap em’ back up but it would be the Titans scoring two plays later to steal one from the Panthers 25-19 in 2 Ots.

The Panther Widgets were poised to show the Titans that they were the team to beat in the division this year.  The Titans would open the game up with a couple of TDs and kicks and take a 16-0 lead. But the Panthers responded with Touchdown runs by Danny Castro, Ricky Coffman, and Josh Hettiger and would capture the lead 20-16 late in the 3^rd quarter.  The 4^th quarter would be all Burbank though and they would hand the Widgets their second loss on the season by a final score of 37-20.

The Junior game was not quite what the Panthers envisioned as they went down 18-0 in the first quarter.  They never quite got anything going offensively and the D couldn’t contain the speed of the Titans.  The Panthers will look to post their first victory this week as they hopefully are disappointed in the 38-0 loss and intend to take it out on the Bulldogs.

The Panthers will welcome in the Hegewisch Bulldogs on Sunday for Homecoming at the home field in Worth.

Homecoming weekend was a very successful weekend for the Panthers Organization.  A big Thank You goes out to everyone who was responsible for making it possible.  The football games were also very enjoyable, as another level finally won their first game of the 2009 season. 

 The Supers started the HC by taking a defeat from the Bulldogs.  They played very hard and did punch one in the end zone.  They look to keep that momentum up as they start their second half of their season.

The Pee-Wee game was very exciting.  The Panthers and Bulldogs shot back and forth at each other with TDs early and often.  Panthers would jump back on top of the Bulldogs but after Mikey O'Sullivan would score he would have to leave the game.  The Panthers would then find themselves with the ball late but could not make anything happen in Hegewisch territory.  Panthers lose 24-20.

 The Panthers Widgets would see the best team that Hegewisch has to offer and basically came out looking like they would compete.  Down 8-0 in the first, The Panthers D would stifle  the Bulldogs in their endzone for a Safety.  Although, the Bulldogs would score before half and run away with this one with a score of 28-2.  The widgets fall to 1-3 on the season.

The Juniors would pull off their first win of the season by beating the Bulldogs 21-14 in a pretty well played ball game.  The Panthers opened up the game with a nice drive and TD run by FB Jesse Salinas.  They would take the ball back and score again with a HB pass by Andrew Alabaza to TE Steve Kiatkowski.  The Panthers would get the ball back in the 3rd quarter and it was Alabaza again with the 2 yd TD run that gave the Panthers the 21-0 lead.  The Bulldogs never gave up and posted 2 TDs late and had the ball with one more play but the D was able to hold up and Juniors improved their record to 1-3.

 The Panthers look to pick it up in the second half of the season when the Orland Knights come to Worth on Sunday.

The Panthers would take on the Orland Knights at home this past weekend.  There were some pretty entertaining games played on all levels.

The Supers started the day off with a great effort putting two more scores up on the board.  Theres a bright future for these little guys.

 The Pee-Wee game was just about like every other game they've played this year.  You knew it would be close and come down to the end.  The Panthers would fight to make this one close with a pair of TDs by George Lopez.  In the end however, it would be the Knights controlling the ball last and taking this one by a score of 20-14.  Pee-Wees fall to 0-5.

The Widgets would try to get back on track after a loss last week to a good Bulldog team.  Coach Brent and Coach Trout would gather a gameplan that worked to perfection.  Pounding the football offensively and playing stout defense would be the recipe for the Panthers to walk away with an 8-0 win.  The lone TD was score by Chase Kozoil.  The widgets improve their record to 2-3 on the season and still look to sneak into the playoffs. 

The Juniors would come out flat Sunday and would lose to Knights by a score of 28-6.  The lone bright spot was a great catch and TD run by Steve Kwiatkowski on the last play of the game.  The Juniors will have their hands full when they take on the league's best team thus far in the Summit Rebels.

 The Worth-Ridge Panthers have just 3 weeks left in the regular season and travel to Summit to take on the Rebels for their Homecoming.

The Panthers traveled to Summit to take on the Rebels Sunday.  The Supers strated off a little shakey but look to finsish the season strong with two games left on their schedule.

 The Pee-Wees came in still looking for their first win of the season but it didnt look very promising early as the Rebels would jump to a 20-0 halftime lead.  The Panthers however would respond and wake up in the 2nd half as they put up TDs by Mike O'Sullivan and George Lopez but it would not be enough as the Panthers would fall to Summit 20-13 in another close one.

The Widgets seemed poise to show that they can play some consistant football and string a few wins together in a row to make that playoff push.  Big runs by Chase Kozoil and Josh Hettiger would have the Panthers up early and another 4 yd TD run by Hettiger would break it open 20-0.  The Rebels would make a late comeback in the 4th Qtr but the Panthers held strong and kneeled their way to victory.  A very nice win for the Panthers Widgets as they improve their record to 3-3 on the 2009 season.

The Juniors came in knowing they'd have their hands full with a loaded Junior Rebels team.  They never did give up and played very tough against the Rebels and their "Wildcat" offense looks like its here to stay for their final two games of the season.

The Panthers will host their final home game of the season when their rivals Alsip Falcons come to town.

Sunday was the final Home game for the Panthers this season and a Thank You goes out to all the Board Members, Coaches, Parents, Players, and every other Volunteer that made the 2009 season a successful one.  There was some exciting football to watch on Sunday as well.

The Supers played their butts off like they do every week and have one more week to improve.

The Pee-wee game was, well, like every other Pee-Wee game the Panthers have played this year...a nail-biter.  The Panthers pounded the ball all day with a great performance running by Pat Doyle who came out running with a purpose.  The Falcons would take the lead on the Panthers 12-6 but after a toss to RB Jennings to the right side to tie it up the Panthers would need to execute the PAT to take the lead late in the 4th Quarter.  Coach Doyle would dial up the counter and punch it in and the Pee-wees would walk away with their first victory of the year.  Congrats to the Boys and Coaches.  Final score 13-12.

The Widgets still have the playoffs in their sight and they came out Sunday letting the Falcons know it.  TD runs by Chase Kozoil, Josh Hettiger, and Daniel Castro would have the Panthers up 20-0 in the 1st Quarter.  They would cruise from their on and take this one 31-14 and look to the biggest game of the season for these boys where its Win or Go Home.

The Juniors felt as if they could compete with the Falcons and showed they could as they exchanged TD passes in the 1st Quarter.  However, A Td catch by WR Steve Kwiatkowski from Andrew Elabaza would be the lone TD for the Panthers as they couldnt find a way to muster up anything else offensively.  The Panthers look to finish off the season on a high note in the final game for the 8th Graders as a Panther as they take on the 2-time defending Superbowl Champs this Sunday.

 The Panthers will make the long drive to Hammond, IN this weekend to take on the Hessville Vipers in the final game of the regular season.

It was the final week for the Panthers Regular season as they would make the trip to Hammond, In to take on the Hessville Vipers.  The Supers improved every week this year and had a wonderful season.  Congrats to these little guys and the coaches.

The Pee-Wees would wrap their season up with a 18-0 defeat to the Vipers and finish their season 1-7 but seemed to have been a better team than their record showed.  Congrats to all the Pee-Wees and the coahing staff on a fine season.  Even Coach Skuz.

The Widgets game was the Game of the Day as the Panthers would need a win to advance to the playoffs and it started off looking good as RB Chase Kozoil would take a run 60 yds on the first drive for a TD to go up 6-0.  The Vipers would match with a TD of their own and they would exchange one more each as the Panthers had the lead late in the 4th quarter 14-12.  However, the Panthers would lose their leader, Josh Hettiger, to and ankle injury and the Vipers would drive down and score to end the widget's season.  They finish with a 4-4 record and a great season.  Nice job boys.

The Juniors would lose to the Vipers 22-0 and end their season 1-7.  Good Luck to all the 8th graders moving on to play High School football and we'll see you 7th graders back next year.

The 2009 season was an exciting one and the Panthers look to build off it for the 2010 season.  See ya next season!