Muskie ‘Bees’ stung at home

Everyone makes mistakes, but winning football teams aren’t prone to making the same ones twice.
The Muskie ‘B’ football team will have a hard time making their mark in the win column until they learn this simple truth as two home losses this past week proved.
“The mistakes are the same ones we’ve been making,” said head coach Louis Gauthier after the “Bees” followed up a 22-0 shutout by the Roseau Rams here last Thursday with a 38-6 loss to the visiting Warroad Warriors yesterday afternoon.
“It’s mental mistakes. It’s something you can’t put your finger on,” he added. “They practice well, but game time comes, and I don’t know what happens.
“We had special teams guys not knowing their spots and things like that.”
Yesterday’s contest opened with hope for a more competitive outcome when the black-and-gold responded to a Warriors’ touchdown on the first possession of the game with one of their own to register their first points of the season.
Joel Herbert hooked up with Terry Carmody, who sprinted away from the Warriors’ defence for a 60-yard pass-and-run play which pulled the Muskies to within two at 8-6 (they went on to miss their two-point conversion attempt).
But after that, a steady and steamrolling ground attack by Warroad blasted holes through the Muskies’ defence.
“Most of the first and second quarter, they just plowed it straight down the middle,” said Gauthier. “What are you going to do when you’ve got nine guys running up the middle at you?
“We made some defensive adjustments, but it wasn’t enough.”
The Warriors built a big lead by halftime, then cruised from there—aided by a Muskie offence that would have spurts of momentum but continually shoot itself in the foot.
“It takes us a while to get going and then once we’d rip off a big play, it would get called back on a penalty,” a frustrated Gauthier said.
“But we’ve got five guys from this group going up with the varsity team to Winnipeg this weekend,” he added. “Hopefully, they’ll watch and get to see the kind of intensity you need to play at that level and then come back here and have it rub off on the other guys.”
Meanwhile, the Rams and Muskies went toe-to-toe for the first half of last Thursday’s confrontation, with Roseau leading only 8-0 at the half after a Stephen Anderson six-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion on a pass to receiver Alex Orgon.
Then in an example of the home team not getting the bounce, Rams’ running back Issiah Hruby fumbled into the Muskies’ end zone on Roseau’s first drive of the third quarter.
But Orgon was johnny-on-the-spot to dive on the loose ball for the major, with Anderson running in a two-point convert to make it 14-0.
Later in the quarter, Hruby made amends for his earlier case of butterfingers when he drove up the middle for a four-yard touchdown run, with another two-point convert making it 22-0.
The Muskie offence struggled to make any headway for most of the game, other than some strong gains on the ground by running back Jordan York, as Fort Frances had only three offensive plays in the third quarter.
They started to roll late in the fourth, with Herbert and Carmody hooking up for a pair of long gains. But Kyle Borah intercepted Herbert’s long pass at the Rams’ 32 with 1.1 seconds left to secure the shutout.
“The guys showed us today who really wants to play,” said Muskie offensive co-ordinator Shane Beckett. “Joel [Herbert] is a really smart kid who understands the game.
“He went four-for-four down the stretch, and took control of things on both sides of the ball.”
Defensive lineman D.J. Howells also had a noteworthy game last Thursday as he penetrated the Rams’ backfield frequently and even forced—and then recovered—a fumble by Roseau quarterback Kurt Weston.
The “Bees” host the International Falls Broncos in their final home game of the season Sept. 25 at 4:30 p.m.
< *c>‘C’ defeat
The Muskie ‘C’ squad also opened their season with a thud instead of a bang here Monday afternoon, but it was more a matter of a youth movement running into an older, stronger brick wall.
With only four Grade 8 players on their roster, the Muskies were beaten 44-0 by the Baudette Bears, who played mostly Grade 8 players for the first half and part way into the third.
“I thought our offence could have been a bit crisper,” said head coach Dean Bruyere, whose team settled down after falling behind 30-0 after the first quarter.
“On defence, we had guys trapped in the backfield a few times, but they would break tackles and get away from us,” he added.
Bruyere lauded Jesse Brunetta and Matt DePiero as two of his brighter lights on the day.
“Jesse’s finally figured out what he has to do and had some nice tackles,” said Bruyere. “And Matt is a good kid with a great heart who loves to play.”
The Muskies were scheduled to play a pair of exhibition games in Thunder Bay this weekend, but those have been moved to Sept. 27-28.
That means an extended break in action until they visit Baudette for the rematch Sept. 22.
“We’ve got a couple of weeks—we’ll be in better shape by then,” vowed Bruyere. “We’ve only had five practices in full uniform.”