Joey Payeur
Just having enough players to make the road trip to Brandon last Thursday had to be considered a victory for the Muskie football program considering the shorthanded situation it faced only days earlier.
A victory on the scoreboard, however, will have to wait for another day.
The black-and-gold were blanked 30-0 by the Neelin Spartans—leaving them unable to match last year’s 2-0 start in the Andy Currie Division (‘A’) of the WHSFL.
“Our inexperience shone through,” said new Muskie head coach Mike Cuzzolino, who dropped his debut after being promoted from his offensive line coaching duties last season.
“We’re really raw,” he admitted. “Lots of guys got their eyes opened a bit.”
Some 35 players made the trip—a vast improvement over the 24 who gathered for the team’s training camp one week earlier.
That was roughly half-a-dozen less than Cuzzolino was
willing to head west with, putting the game in jeopardy.
But an influx of players at the start of the week rectified the situation.
With the Spartans’ defensive line winning the battle against their overmatched foes on the Muskies’ offensive line, running back Dougie deBernardeaux found it tough sledding to get anywhere when handed the ball.
That led to new starting quarterback Brandon Whitecrow being forced into plenty of second-and-long situations, which he was unable to convert.
“We have a ton of work to do on offence, especially on the offensive line,” Cuzzolino stressed.
“We had a really hard time running the football.
“We probably had negative rushing yards, so we were forced to air it out more than I would’ve liked,” he noted.
“But I give credit to Neelin,” added Cuzzolino. “They came to play.
“But we need better protection for both Brandon and Dougie,” he remarked. “Also, we had some dropped balls from receivers and a few interceptions [thrown by Whitecrow].
“We had a hard time getting into rhythm,” Cuzzolino conceded.
“We’re just inexperienced on the offensive side of the ball. We’ll get there,” he pledged.
The Spartans took an 18-0 halftime lead on a pair of rushing touchdowns and another through the air on a short pass.
In the second half, the Muskie defence stiffened, with Neelin’s only points coming from its defence, which recovered a pair of fumbles in the Muskies’ end zone for touchdowns.
“Our defence played very well,” lauded Cuzzolino.
“We had at least two picks and two fumble recoveries [along with five sacks].
“We will have a strong, aggressive ‘D’ that will cause some turnovers,” he noted.
Another area that needs some polish is special teams—something the Muskies didn’t get much chance to work on during practice as their initial focus mainly was on the offence and defence.
“Our special teams were not great,” Cuzzolino remarked.
“Lots of times, kids didn’t know what special [teams] they were on, and didn’t know the difference between the kick-off and kick-off return teams and the punt and punt return teams,” he explained.
“A few times, only seven or eight players would go on field for their special team [although] we ran through special teams roll call before the game, and had a depth chart on the bus and on the field,” he added.
“Just shows our youth and inexperience.”
The only injuries of note were Kenton Bowles (upper body), who was converted from the defensive line spot he held last season to outside linebacker, and defensive halfback Joe Onichuk (lower body).
Both are listed as week-to-week.
Fort High will travel to Dryden on Friday to face an Eagles’ team also looking for its first win—and first points—after getting blanked 35-0 by the Elmwood Giants in their season-opener this past Friday.
“First game under our belts,” said Cuzzolino.
“I expect people will see a different team [this] week.”
The Muskies’ first home game is set for Friday, Sept. 19 at 4 p.m. against the Maples Marauders.