Lucas Punkari
After letting a chance at a victory slip away during the regular season opener at home against the Elmwood Giants the week prior, the Fort High Muskies football team made sure that same fate didn’t happen a second time around.
The black-and-gold proved to be the far stronger side after four quarters of play on Friday afternoon in Dryden, as they defeated the Eagles by a score of 21-6, and earned their first victory of the 2012 WHSFL campaign in the process.
“Things went really well for us on Friday,” head coach Chad Canfield enthused.
“The defense played a strong game, and the offense was a lot better than they were in our home opener as we didn’t drop nearly as many passes, which is big for us as that is a big part of our offense.
“We wanted to get the offense going right away, and we told them going into the game that we had some unfinished business, and they responded with a touchdown on the very first drive,” he added.
That opening drive in the end-zone was concluded by a rushing score from Cam Gobeil, who finished the day with three touchdowns as he would return a kickoff in the second quarter and had another rushing score in the second half.
“Cam was playing running back along with Colton Craig, and that gave us a lot of options in the backfield,” Canfield noted.
“He [Cam] was able to get to the corner a couple of times and he was able to get into the end-zone on two occasions, along with the kickoff return that he had for a touchdown.
“By the time that the players on Dryden had stopped chasing him, the closest defender was probably 15 or 20 yards away from him, and that just shows you how quick Cam is,” he added.
In addition to Gobeil’s big-game performance, the black-and-gold were also able to gain yardage through the air to get things going on offense.
“Tobijah Gerber was really sharp at quarterback, and he was really placing the ball where it needed to be,” Canfield explained.
“It was also great to have Colton playing in the backfield along with Cam, as not only can he run the ball, but he also made some really nice grabs to pick up some big yards for us,” he added.
In a similar performance to their season opening loss to Elmwood, the Fort High defense was able to shut down the Eagles offense during the course of the afternoon, with a number of players making huge plays.
“Will Goodwin and Mike Murphy were just unbelievable in the middle as defensive tackles,” Canfield enthused.
“They [Dryden] tried to run at those guys all day long and they didn’t give them an inch, so that was really impressive to see.
“Joe Ball also played really well as he was making a lot of tackles, and Matt Deschamps had a big interception late in the game when Dryden was driving on us,” he added.
The Muskies will now prepare for a busy week on the gridiron, as they will be on the road on Friday afternoon to take on the Daniel McIntyre Maroons, before they return home on Tuesday for a date with the Tec Voc Hornets.
“With an odd-number of teams in the league this year, everyone is going to be going through a week like this,” Canfield explained.
“Traditionally, Daniel McIntrye is a pretty strong team that we have had some good bouts with in the past, but after their game last weekend, I’m not sure if they’ve taken a step back in their competitiveness or if Neelin is just that good.
“Tec Voc is a team that has struggled the last couple of years, but you never know how things will go as things are very cyclical in high school sports, so we won’t take anyone for granted that’s for sure,” Canfield continued.
“We would like to pick up a win here on Tuesday, as all the games that we’ve won over the last couple of years have been on the road, so it would be nice to get one at home,” he added.
