Despite Minooka’s two touchdowns in the first half, York took the lead early and never gave it up.

It was Homecoming Week, and on Sept. 10, the sophomore Minooka Indians were taking the field. But the sophomore York Dukes came out attacking right away. 

After a quick stop and a missed snap to the punter, the Dukes were able to score quickly with a touchdown run by freshman quarterback Colton Gumino, who is ranked 155th nationally in his class at his position. 

“It was just an overall bad game for everyone,” Minooka sophomore quarterback Joe Brown said. “The defense was trying there best to get stops, and the offense couldn’t move the ball that game. So it really just came down to who played the better game and as you saw with the score they played as the better football team.”

The Indians answered back right away with a 45-yard touchdown run by sophomore Braeden Anderson, but could not tie it up after the missed point after attempt. 

To keep the scoring sequence going, York extended its lead with a touchdown pass by Gumino to sophomore Jake Melion. The score was now 14-6.

“York was a great challenge for us, with a quality team coming in to help us prepare for our upcoming conference games,” Minooka’s coach Robert Wendlick said.

In the second quarter, Minooka came out attacking. After Anderson’s 35-yard run after catch on the screen play, bringing them into the redzone, Brown threw a touchdown pass to sophomore Efrein Ramirez. The Indians elected to go for two, to tie up the game, but did not convert the attempt. 

York answered back with a touchdown pass to sophomore Luke Mailander by Gumino. The score was now 21-12 going into half.

“The greatest offensive challenge is just players understanding the plays and concepts of what the offense is trying to do,” Wendlick said.  “Often times we are only one block away from a big gain, so we need to make sure everyone knows their assignments and can adjust if the defense blitzes or twists on us.  We continue to get better each week.”

In the third quarter, Gumino and the Dukes came out strong. Gumino had two 25-plus passing touchdowns to Mailander. And a 14-yard pass to sophomore Chirs Danko. And defensively stopped the Indians from putting points on the board. The score was 41-12 after a missed point after attempt by York’s kicker, going into the 4th. 

“We have had some missed assignments that have led to big plays and as players get older and stronger the players also need to realize that tackling becomes tougher,” Wendlick said  “We need to avoid arm tackles and make sure we are using good fundamentals to bring ball carriers to the ground and all running gaps and pass zones are covered.”

It was a scoreless 4th quarter. Minooka made it into the red zone early, after a 40-yard pass to sophomore Troy Hudak by sophomore Nate Maul. But the drive was stopped by a 4th down interception by sophomore AJ Levine. 

“Although the score last week might not have shown it, we did a lot of very good things.  Some weaknesses were exposed and we are working on improving those as we face the Plainfields and Oswegos in the next few weeks,” Wendlick said.

Many of Minooka’s players thought that York was a challenging competitor and look to bounce back strongly for their conference games.

“They were just better, and we wished we could have pulled the win,” sophomore defensive lineman Colin Fitzgerald said.