Lucas Punkari
For all of the strides the Muskie football program has made since Chad Canfield took over as head coach in 2010, the one achievement the team had yet to accomplish was a victory on home turf.
That long-time goal finally was checked off last Tuesday afternoon in convincing fashion as the black-and-gold blanked the visiting Tec Voc Hornets 33-0.
“I think this is big for us,” Grade 12 slot receiver Colton Craig smiled after the game.
“To win here with everybody watching, and to beat them by such a score that we did, it was a good game,” he added.
“For whatever reason, we seemed to be getting all of our wins on the road before this, which was a bit strange,” Canfield noted.
“It’s always a good feeling, though, to win at home, especially for the guys that are playing in front of their friends [and] family members who aren’t able to make it to the away games,” he stressed.
The Muskies were looking to rebound from 20-7 road loss to the Daniel McIntyre Maroons four days earlier, with the offence looking to bounce back from some errors in that game.
“The biggest key we felt for us heading into the game here was to make sure that we were holding onto the football,” Craig stressed.
“We had three offensive fumbles in our loss to the Maroons, so we knew going in that we had to work on that,” he reasoned.
“Plus, we wanted to get our offensive plays more down pat than we were in our first three games,” echoed Grade 12 running back Cam Gobeil.
After Gobeil ran into the end zone on the opening drive of last Tuesday’s game, the Muskies’ rushing attack dominated the Hornets throughout the rest of the first half.
Gobeil scored two more touchdowns to finish the day with 220 yards, which helped him earn player of the week honours, while Craig also crossed the goal line to stake Fort High to a 30-0 lead at halftime.
“We were just able to run the ball really well,” Canfield noted.
“Cam’s really quick, as everyone saw here today [Tuesday], and he was able to get on the outside a couple of times and broke some tackles along the way.
“Colton played a couple of series in the backfield and scored a long touchdown, and the offensive line was blocking really well, so it all just clicked,” he lauded.
A 27-yard field goal by Aaron Kellar in the third quarter capped the scoring as the Muskie defence shut down the Hornets’ offence the rest of the way.
“Eight turnovers, enough said,” Canfield smiled.
“The guys played well and they all swarmed to the ball,” he recalled. “And even though the Hornets did rip off some good yards, they were able to shut them down.
“Sometimes it’s tough to keep the guys engaged and pumped up when the score is that high, but they played well, like they normally do,” Canfield added.
While his team was blanked for the second-straight game, Hornets’ head coach Dan Keith was quick to credit the play of his team’s opposition.
“They [the Muskies] were working hard, hitting hard, and were coming with intensity all game long, and I think that was the difference,” Keith said.
“We were unable to match their level of intensity, and that has been an issue for us all year long.”
With their win last Tuesday, the Muskies improved to 2-2 to find themselves in a tightly-contested battle for third place in the WHSFL’s Andy Currie ‘A’ Division.
After receiving a bye over the weekend, the black-and-gold now are preparing for their annual Homecoming game, which takes place this Friday (Oct. 5) at 1 p.m. versus the Neelin Spartans.
“We know them [Neelin] a little bit from some film that we’ve seen, and they have a strong running game with a back that is very shifty and hard to bring down,” Canfield warned.
“We’re going to take a good hard look at Neelin and see what we are going to have to do in order to score some points and to also hold them off of the scoreboard,” he added.
