Muskies drop football opener to Huskies

The school was technically new but the result was the usual as the Muskie football team fell 20-6 to the Sturgeon Heights Huskies in their WHSFL opener here Friday afternoon.
“The boys showed a lot of heart and they gave it their all,” said Muskie head coach Vince Gouin. “But the ball was just out of reach, and we were just an inch away from the big plays.
“But I saw a lot of effort, I saw a lot of promise from all our players,” he added.
The game looked like it would be a rout early on, with the home side trailing 17-0 at the half. But the Muskies buckled down and allowed just a field goal the rest of the way while the offence scored a touchdown.
“The second half of this game, I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage, I thought we controlled the game,” said Gouin. “We didn’t change up anything but we shortened it up . . . and they showed their mettle in the second half.”
Sturgeon Heights, formed from the merger of former rival Sturgeon Creek and another Winnipeg high school, Silver Heights, brought a familiar face back to the Muskie gridiron in coach Brett Watt.
Watt, a star quarterback for the black-and-gold from 1985-89, is one of the minority from Sturgeon Creek to represent the new school on the football team.
“I think the biggest part is we made our big plays and they never,” he remarked.
Watt added he thought it was a good effort from the home team “even despite the circumstances they played under”—specifically, the first game without the late Ben Klyne.
Klyne, a former starting linebacker for the black-and-gold, was killed in a car accident last month. He was remembered in a short ceremony prior to Friday’s game, and the team will honour him this season by wearing his #27 on their helmets.
The sting of playing without Klyne was fresh on the team’s mind. And when quarterback Blake Wepruk snuck into the end zone for the team’s only touchdown, he pointed and looked skyward in tribute to his former teammate.
“I saluted him,” Wepruk said afterwards. “We were all like a family. [A] football team is a family . . . everyone knows Ben was a great football player.
“Still shook me up when we did that memorial thing at the beginning.”
The Muskies next travel to Winnipeg this Friday (Sept. 14) to face the St. Paul’s Crusaders (#2) at 4 p.m.
Gouin was confident his young defence that regularly caused fumbles from the strong Huskies’ offence should play much the same throughout the season.
“What you saw on the field was our normal defence,” he remarked. “I can’t say anything more about it.”
As for practice over the next week, “we’re going to have the same focus we did last week. Work hard, execute, do the basics,” Gouin added.
One area the Muskies will look to improve is their shaky passing game, which forced them to rely on running plays against Sturgeon Heights this past Friday.
“When we threw our passes, our receivers just didn’t hold on to the ball,” Gouin said, adding that was a “correctable” problem.
Wepruk is hoping to fix that in the playbook.
“We’re gonna put in a deep pass formation this week,” he noted. “Most of the guys will know what they’re doing, so it’ll be smooth for [this] Friday.”
The Muskies’ next home game will be Sept. 21 against Dryden, which also will be the annual Homecoming showdown. Watt won’t be there, of course, having enjoyed his coming home last week.
“You know, I always love coming back here and beating the black-and-gold,” he smiled. “I always cheer for the Muskies and hope they do well—but not so well against me.”