Muskie ‘C’ squad nipped by Bears

The Muskie ‘C’ football team decided to build a better Bear trap this time around—and it nearly snagged them their first win of the year.
After suffering a 44-0 loss to the Baudette Bears here in their opening game of the season two weeks earlier, the Muskies brought out the big guns defensively against a much less intimidating Bears’ unit, which played many of their back-ups for much of Monday’s rematch in Baudette.
The result was a narrow 8-6 loss to the Bears, which had Muskie head coach Dean Bruyere gleaming with pride about his team’s effort.
“Everybody improved 110 percent in their tackling skills from last game, especially our gang tackling,” said Bruyere, whose defence was led by lineman Aaron Oakes, who had a pair of sacks.
The Bears struck on their first drive of the game thanks to a 55-yard touchdown run, and added a two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead.
But the Muskies, who faced the Bears’ mostly Grade 8-laden lineup for much of their opening tilt, brought the hammer down defensively after that against the Baudette back-ups who were getting some extra playing time.
That gave the Fort Frances a chance to respond, and quarterback Blake Wepruk and flanker Michael Jourdain did just that in the second quarter.
Wepruk hit Jourdain with a short pass and the converted halfback busted loose for a 40-yard touchdown, with the Muskies failing to convert the major to keep it a two-point game.
“We moved Michael to the flanker position because he’s got good hands,” noted Bruyere. “He just slipped the tackle after catching the pass, and took off.”
Slipping was not an uncommon occurrence in the midst of Monday’s continually rainy conditions.
“We fumbled the ball lots on offence, it was pretty slick out there,” said Bruyere, whose team held firm even when the Bears put their first-teamers in for most of the second half.
“If it had been a fair weather game, we would have beat them by two or three touchdowns.”
The Muskies also were hurt by penalties, which washed out a pair of big gains by their offence in the second half.
“We had some illegal procedure calls against us and some blocking from the back infractions,” recalled Bruyere. “It was too bad because [fullback] Dave Moen made some nice blocks to spring [halfback] Matt Depiero for a couple of those plays.”
The ‘C’ squad next heads to Thunder Bay this weekend for a two-game exhibition series Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. against representatives of the Thunder Bay Minor Football Association.
It marks the first time in recent memory that a team from outside the Thunder Bay district will travel there to compete in minor football.
The Muskies then will close their season with two match-ups against the International Falls Broncos’ Grade 7 team Oct. 9 and their Grade 8 team Oct. 14.