Joey Payeur
Chad Canfield needs answers—and he’s only got about a week to find them.
The head coach of the Muskie football team was searching for solutions to his team’s season-long discipline issues after yesterday’s 31-0 loss to the host Elmwood Giants to close out the WHSFL regular season.
“We took over 100 yards of penalties again, including about a half-a-dozen major fouls,” Canfield fumed.
“I don’t know how to stop it at this point,” he admitted. “We’d have them stopped on second down and then one of our guys would push somebody after the play and get a penalty.
“We’re going to have to take a couple of the repeat offenders in practice and have them practice walking away in that situation.”
With their second-straight loss, the Muskies finished tied for sixth at 3-4 with the Tec Voc Hornets, who beat the Maples Marauders (1-5-1) by a 21-11 margin yesterday in Winnipeg.
Fort High and Tec Voc did not play each other, and finished with identical 2-3 records against common opponents in the Andy Currie (‘A’) Division.
But with the next tie-breaker being points for and against, the Muskies got the nod for sixth with a mark of minus-20 (compared to minus-41 for the Hornets).
That means a rematch with the third-place Giants (5-2) in the Currie Division quarter-finals next week in Winnipeg (the exact day, time, and venue was still to be determined as of press time today).
But that fact hardly has Canfield running up the white flag on the season.
“That’s the best I’ve ever felt about a 31-0 loss,” he remarked.
“Obviously, we got beat pretty handily . . . but I don’t think any of us came out of yesterday’s game with the opinion we can’t play with [Elmwood],” Canfield added.
“We’ve got to look in the mirror and take care of our own business before worrying about them.”
The Giants only led 1-0 after the first quarter yesterday thanks to a missed field goal.
But riding the momentum generated by a strong rushing attack led by T.J. Prodon, Elmwood hit the end zone twice in the second quarter to lead 15-0 at halftime.
Another major in the third made it 22-0 before the Giants tacked on another touchdown and a field goal in the fourth to cap the scoring.
The task will be even tougher for the Muskies in next week’s rematch with the loss of leading receiver Tristen Badiuk to an ankle injury yesterday.
Canfield said it likely will keep Badiuk out of the quarter-final showdown.
