The Pioneer football team played a tough CJI team this past Saturday, and unfortunately the outcome put an end to the Pioneer football season. It was fun to watch these players put all their effort into every game and fight until the end. Hold your heads high Pioneers, you had a great season to be proud of!
The game started off with some short runs by Wes Cox, but the Pioneers were forced to punt. On offense, CJI had a couple great runs and then after a fist down, they ran in for a touchdown. Ryder Galbavy blocked the extra point and the Pioneers went down early 0-6. The Pioneers in return, had a turnover on downs on offense, and CJI capitalized on that, and scored on a 35 yard touchdown pass. The Pioneers unfortunately couldn't get anything going, and had a quick 3 and out and punted again. CJI had everything working for them on offense, and Karter Jurneka had a great stop to stop them from scoring a touchdown, but on the next play, CJI ran the ball in for another touchdown. On offense, Karter and Wes did all they could, as they have all year, but CJI knew they needed to stop those two, and put every effort into stopping them. The Pioneers threw an interception and CJI scored another touchdown, even after a great tackle from Dolan Sunchild. The Pioneers went into the 2nd quarter down 0-26.
The Pioneer defense had great tackles from Karter, Wes, Dolan, and Aidan Morsette. But even all their great efforts on defense, the Pioneers struggled with stopping CJI from scoring. CJI scored another 3 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter, unfortunately putting themselves in a big hole going into halftime down 0-48.
Aidan gave the Pioneers a spark and came out of half with some great tackles. Quinn Rodewald also had a great pass to Karter for a 45 yard gain down the field, followed by a touchdown pass from Quinn to Karter. But CJI was taking advantage of the clock when they were on offense and was eating the time up. The 3rd quarter ended with CJI not scoring and the Pioneers getting on the board 6-48.
In the last quarter, the Pioneers got another score from Warren Hartley, with a great pass from Quinn, and Ty Terry's kick was good for extra points. Quinn, Warren and Aidan all had a great 4th quarter, but because of the huge deficit to start the game, the Pioneers couldn't stop CJI. The final score was 14-62.
Coach Tucker Taylor ,had this to say about the season, "I thought the boys had good moments this season. We need to improve in the off-season. I think we've got an opportunity to be a much improved team next season. WE were one of the younger teams in the conference this year. Darrell, Ryder, and Sonny have been fun to coach and I think the future is bright for them. "
