Lucas Punkari
Nearly a year after earning their first win in two seasons, the Muskie football squad got to experience the sweet taste of victory once again Friday afternoon in Winnipeg.
A week after they were dumped 36-0 in their season-opener here against the St. Norbert Celtics, the black-and-gold bounced right back with a 14-2 triumph over the host Tec Voc Hornets to give them a 1-1 record in the WHSFL’s Currie Division.
“It was nice to pick up the victory, that’s for sure,” enthused Muskie head coach Chad Canfield, who was back on the sideline after missing the season-opener due to work commitments.
“We’ve had our coaches [Shane Beckett, Bob Whitburn, and Mike Cuzzolino] really pick up the slack while I was away, and they were able to get some more players out, so there lots to work with when I got back,” he noted.
“It was a great situation to return to.”
The Muskies’ opponent was a new challenge for the black-and-gold this season as Tec Voc had moved down to the Currie Division following a 0-6-1 campaign in the higher Vidruk Division a year ago.
“This was our very first time playing them so we weren’t that familiar with them. But we were able to watch a little game tape on them, so we had a little bit of a feeling for them going into the game,” Canfield explained.
“Shane Beckett did an excellent job preparing the guys for this game in looking at the video we had of Tec Voc,” he added.
“And it was kind of funny during the game as he [Beckett] knew every play that Tec Voc was running out of the formations they were [in], so it was good to have him there.”
The Muskies grabbed the lead on the opening drive of the game when Harley Mainville pounded his way into the end zone from three yards out after a big passing play that occurred seconds earlier.
“Our young quarterback, Ben Whitburn, thew a pass out to Aaron Kellar, who was able to break a tackle and bring it down to the three-yard line, which was a great effort to help and set up the touchdown,” Canfield remarked.
After the Hornets made it 7-1 by punting the ball through the end zone, the Muskies once again drove down the field midway through the third quarter, with another passing play setting up Mainville for his second three-yard touchdown of the game.
“We had Colton Craig in at quarterback as their defence was getting pretty close to the line and we wanted him to stretch things out a little bit,” Canfield explained.
“He threw kind of a go route to Jake Dokuchie, and he made a phenomenal catch where he turned his body around and he caught the ball while he was falling down on the three-yard-line.
“From there, we were just able to punch it in and extend our lead,” Canfield added.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, the Muskie defence continued to build off its strong fourth-quarter showing against St. Norbert in their home-opener, keeping Tec Voc from crossing the goal line.
“The entire defence was outstanding,” Canfield lauded. “The secondary played really well, with Braden Webb making a lot of nice plays and Rob Payne breaking up some passes on some big plays towards the end of the game.
“Our defensive line put the pressure on them all day and our linebackers, such as Joe Ball, Justin Whitburn, and Nick Kaun, were just hitting hard, which was great to see,” Canfield enthused.
The black-and-gold will be looking to keep up their winning ways this Friday afternoon (Sept. 23) when they host the Sisler ‘A’ Spartans in their annual Homecoming game, which is slated to get underway at 1 p.m. at Muskie Field.
“Homecoming is always a fun game for us,” Canfield noted.
“We get a big crowd that comes out for the game, so hopefully the weather co-operates on that end and the guys are going to be excited to play, especially coming off of this win,” he added.
Last season saw the Muskies fall 34-0 to the Spartans in a contest at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg, but Canfield feels this year’s game will be a different story.
“Both teams have different groups of guys so I don’t think anything from last year’s game is going to translate into this one,” he reasoned.
“We’ll be looking for more of the same that we saw against Tec Voc, and that is a complete team effort where everybody on team does a little bit to help out, and we can get ourselves a victory.”
