Don’t remind them. They know the history.
Mason Pawelko and Alex Porter go way back in their young lives with Geneva football.
Both are seniors on this year’s team. Pawelko plays safety and wide receiver. Porter is the quarterback.
Both are well aware the Vikings haven’t made the playoffs since 2015.
They also were there.
In sixth grade, Pawelko, Porter and a few friends would often sit together in the temporary bleachers just off the north end zone at Burgess Stadium, watching their heroes.
That season, it was running back Justin Taormina, who went on to Minnesota State, and quarterback Sean Chambers, who played linebacker at Princeton.
“I went to a football camp over the summer and Taormina was a celebrity to me,” Pawelko said. “Meeting him, being coached by him in the camp, it was really cool. All of us thought he was so cool.”
On the field, Pawelko and Porter have exchanged roles.
“In elementary school, I was the quarterback throwing to him — now he’s throwing to me,” Pawelko said. “He was a tight end and a beast and my No. 1 target. It’s kind of funny how it all worked out. We’ve come full circle.”
And they’ve always followed the Vikings.
“I’ve been to every single home game since sixth grade and most of the away games,” Porter said. “In middle school, Mason and I were two of the few paying attention. Everyone is messing around, and we’d sit there and watch the game.”
Little could they know that the 2015 run by those Vikings, who ended up with a 9-2 record, would close a streak of 11 playoff appearances in 12 years.
“Watching those games, I was always dreaming about how cool it was going to be to play in front of all those people,” Pawelko said.
It didn’t happen last spring in a six-game season shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic. Geneva went 2-4 with restricted attendance.
“It didn’t happen until this year, but at least it did happen,” Pawelko said. “It’s a really good community. Everyone rallies around football.”
It’s their turn now.
And Pawelko, Porter and their teammates are making the most of it.
The 6-foot, 180-pound Porter has thrown seven touchdown passes for Geneva (4-1, 2-1), which has pulled off what many pundits considered big upsets in the DuKane Conference the past two weeks with a 13-12 win over Wheaton Warrenville South and a 29-26 win over St. Charles North.
Even the lone loss, 21-7 to Glenbard North, was tight. First-year coach Boone Thorgesen said the Vikings led 7-6 with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The 6-3, 195-pound Pawelko, one of the leaders on defense, has a team-high 29 tackles and two interceptions.
“We thought we’d have to win one of those last two to get into the playoffs,” Pawelko said. “To get both of them was great for us. No one outside our program expected it.”
Geneva even had two starters who were injured during warm-ups miss the St. Charles North game.
“The win over Wheaton Warrenville South was probably a little bigger because we were coming off a loss at that point,” Porter said. “I thought that game helped propel us against North the next week.”
The team rallied from a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter against the North Stars.
“We had more confidence after Wheaton Warrenville South,” Porter said. “Being 3-1 instead of sitting at 2-2 was big. We believe we can get this.”
“It was like a switch went on,” Pawelko said.
The Vikings, who are one win from being playoff eligible and two wins from clinching a berth, play host Friday to St. Charles East (1-4) on homecoming.
Batavia (5-0), which has won the last 10 meetings between the neighboring rivals, comes to town the next week, followed by a game at Wheaton North (4-1) and home against Lake Park (1-4).
“Every team in our conference is good,” Pawelko said. “We can’t think one game is going to be easier than the other. Our big motto all year has been focusing on us. We have to make sure we play our game.’
What’s been the difference?
“Expectations,” Pawelko said, noting this senior class had success as freshmen and sophomores.
“We’ve put in countless hours, on the field, lifting and running,” Porter said. “This is everything we wanted. We knew we could be the team to do it. Now, we just have to be the team that actually does it.”
So far, so good.