Mitch Calvert
But strong
second half
a positive
The Muskie football team went into foreign territory last Friday hoping to secure a win in their Winnipeg High School Football League season-opener but fell short with a 30-21 defeat at the hands of the Garden City Collegiate Fighting Gophers.
The black-and-gold, suffering from some opening-day jitters and a lack of practice, found themselves trailing 21-3 at halftime. But the squad came together as the game went on and nearly pulled off some late-game heroics.
“We spotted them some points early and then battled back,” Muskie head coach Vince Gouin said. “A little trouble on our pass coverages, gave up some fairly big pass plays, but overall once we started putting people in spots where they could make plays, they settled down and started playing well.”
The game opened with a flurry as the Fighting Gophers used home-field advantage to jump out to an early lead. After the Muskies went two-and-out on their opening drive, Garden City returned the subsequent punt to the 15-yard line and then threw a touchdown pass on their first play from scrimmage.
The Muskies did re-group—holding their hosts scoreless for the rest of the first quarter while Steve Williams kicked a 24-yard field goal to narrow the deficit.
Fort High got into some penalty trouble in the second quarter, taking both a face mask and a roughing penalty on one Fighting Gophers’ drive, which ultimately resulted in another touchdown to put the home side up 14-3.
Then on the ensuing kick-off, the Muskies ended up having to jump on the ball on their own five-yard line, giving themselves poor field position. They promptly fumbled it on the next play and the Fighting Gophers capitalized to make it 21-3 at the half.
“Having only 12 players mostly during the first two weeks of [training] camp really hurt us in that first half, but we sat down and talked to all the boys and settled them down [at the intermission],” Gouin noted. “We just told them the first half we played our scrimmage and now it’s time to play for real.”
It worked.
The Fighting Gophers booted a field goal on the opening drive of the second half to make the score 24-3, but Josh Stevens later intercepted a pass to set up a drive engineered by Muskie quarterback Dan Brunetta that ended in a 25-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Blake Wepruk.
Leading 24-10, Garden City got that one right back on a questionable touchdown where their receiver reached over the goal line trying for the score but the ball squirted loose before he got in. The touchdown signal was made, however, despite the Muskies recovering it in the end zone.
On the ensuing two-point conversion attempt, Wepruk tackled the ball carrier and recovered the fumble—bringing the ball upfield to set up the Muskies’ next drive.
But Fort High couldn’t take advantage, turning the ball over on downs inside the Fighting Gophers’ 25-yard line.
The defence would step up from there, however, as defensive tackle Jeff Smeeth threw the Fighting Gophers’ running back for a 15-yard loss before the Muskies got the punter in the end zone for a safety to make it 30-12.
The Muskies then drove down the field, highlighted by a 32-yard pass from Brunetta to Matt Mutz, before Wepruk scored his second touchdown of the game on a 23-yard reception.
The black-and-gold then went for the on-side kick and it worked to perfection, recovering the ball at midfield. But despite getting to the red zone, the Fighting Gophers came up big with an interception at their own 10-yard line to end the threat.
The Muskies added another safety late, but that was the end of the scoring.
“In talking to the coaches, we felt we played well enough to win, especially for it really being our first game,” Gouin said.
“We made a lot of mistakes due to not practising enough, but showed a lot of promise,” he added. “Four different receivers caught passes, and four different running backs ran the ball, and our offensive line did not give up a sack.
“[We] need to work on our run to get the offensive line to move and maintain their blocks, and for our receivers to keep their feet moving downfield and block for the run, as well,” Gouin continued.
“We’re getting there. The team we played was very much into a wide-open pass game, and this is only one rung up the ladder.
“A mistake is not a mistake unless you do it again,” he stressed.
The Muskies will play their home-opener this Friday (Sept. 12) at 2 p.m. when former NorWOSSA rivals the Kenora Broncos come to town.
“They are very familiar with us as we are with them, so it should be a good, hard-fought game,” Gouin remarked.