Muskies hang helmets on Homecoming

Put the suitcases away and park the bus in the garage.
A seemingly endless road adventure has come to an end for the Muskie ‘A’ football squad, who finally will get to feel their own turf beneath their feet more than midway into the Winnipeg High School Football League season.
After starting the year 0-4, the black-and-gold will be hoping to finally get into the win column (and snap a 15-game WHSFL losing streak dating back to the 2001 season) when they host the Churchill Bulldogs (3-1) in the annual Homecoming game this Friday at 4 p.m.
But with Churchill and the undefeated St. Paul’s Crusaders (4-0) sandwiched around a clash with the WHSFL’s only other winless team in the Sisler Spartans (0-3-1), it’s not like home cooking will be easy to swallow for the Muskies.
“Churchill’s got a good defence and they don’t make mistakes on offence,” said head coach Bob Swing. “They’re like every other team. They’ll beat you if they’ve got less turnovers.”
The confrontation to watch will be the Churchill offence—averaging 20 points per game—against a Muskie team that has surrendered almost 35 points per game, though much of that can be attributed to special teams breakdowns and defensive scores by their opponents.
Offence hasn’t been a problem in recent weeks for the Muskies, who have been led by quarterback Andrew George and receiver Kevin Gemmell (who was pictured on the front page of Saturday’s Winnipeg Free Press trying to haul in a pass).
George led all WHSFL ‘AA’ Division quarterbacks in completions (29) and passing yardage (470) heading into last Friday’s game against the defending champion Oak Park Raiders.
Meanwhile, Gemmell topped the charts in receptions (17) and receiving yardage (329), and was tied for the lead with River East’s Dan Medina with six touchdowns scored, including four through the air.
But it was another Muskie receiver who had the Raiders’ defence in chase mode during Oak Park’s 26-17 win there last Friday.
Larry Pham caught two long touchdown strikes from George to keep the Muskies in a game that Swing said turned on a less than intelligent call on his part in the third quarter.
“I was dumb,” Swing offered bluntly about his decision to call a hitch pass to Gemmell on a third-and-one gamble that the Raiders sniffed out and stopped for no gain—forcing the black-and-gold to turn the ball over on downs.
“We worked our butts off, and we let another team beat us by us beating ourselves,” he added. “But we’re scaring the crap out of other teams right now. We’re getting better in believing in what we can do.
“I hope everyone comes out for the Homecoming game, because they are going to see a calibre of football that they haven’t seen around here for a very long time,” he pledged.
Oak Park (1-2-1) came into last Friday’s game having scored only 36 points in three contests, and looked nothing close to what a two-time defending champion should resemble.
But a pair of first-quarter field goals and an early second-quarter major had the Raiders up 13-0 before Pham completed a 70-yard pass play to pull the Muskies within six by halftime.
A double pump fake by the Raiders’ quarterback set up a long Oak Park touchdown of their own to make it 20-7 in the third quarter. But a Craig McTavish 33-yard field goal and Pham’s 80-yard touchdown catch pared the lead to 20-17.
And that had the Muskies thinking upset over a team that had ran roughshod over the black-and-gold 42-0 in their regular-season clash and 35-8 in their quarter-final showdown last season.
Then came the turning point on the third-down gamble.
“[Oak Park] had been jamming the middle all game, so we thought we’d take it outside,” said Swing. “They ended up doing the exact opposite on that play and made the adjustments they had to.”
The Muskie defence held fast to keep it close, but the Oak Park defence ratcheted up the pressure itself and forced a late turnover by Fort Frances on its own 12 that set up the insurance touchdown.
The improvement on the scoreboard between the two teams didn’t make a bit of difference to Swing.
“A loss is a loss, whether it’s by one or 99,” reasoned Swing in light of his team’s 15th-straight defeat in WHSFL play. “It still counts the same. Moral victories are for people who are used to losing.
“We’ve got to turn the corner. We’re getting better, but we need to eliminate the mental mistakes,” he stressed.