Lucas Punkari
With the support of the black-and-gold clad crowd on their side, the Muskie football team fed off of that energy as they went back and forth with the Sisler ‘A’ Spartans in Fort High’s annual Homecoming game Friday afternoon.
But as time wound down in the fourth quarter, it was clear that the Muskies had been completely worn out by their visitors as the Spartans claimed a 23-7 victory, dropping Fort High to 1-2 mark on the young WHSFL season.
“The guys played well and there’s a lot of good things that they did out here, but it’s always disappointing to lose at Homecoming because the kids get really fired up for the game,” said Muskie head coach Chad Canfield.
“Even though we have our roster size of 43 guys, we still have those core guys playing a lot out there,” he noted. “And towards the end of the game, you saw that our guys were getting a little bit tired and that ultimately took us out of the game.”
Despite losing their second game of the season, the progress the team has made since the start of the year, when at times it wasn’t even clear if there even would be enough players to field a full squad, is one everyone is noticing.
“We’ve gotten better but we just couldn’t put it all together today,” sighed defensive back Braden Webb.
“The defence played good and we found a way to shut down their running back for a period of time, but we just got tired at the end,” he added.
The running back Webb was referring to was Spartans’ fullback Jayden Erasmo, who bruised and battered his way to numerous first downs throughout the game to help his team drive down the field and score points.
“He’s probably our toughest player on the roster,” noted Spartans’ coach Collin Moskal. “He bangs the ball in there every single time, he’s a big-time leader for us as one of our captains, and he’s only in Grade 10.
“He’s got two more seasons left in high school and he’s probably someone you are going to hear a lot about in a couple years as someone who could be a University of Manitoba prospect,” Moskal enthused.
The Spartans opened up the scoring early in the first quarter on a 24-yard rush down the sidelines by quarterback Riley Harrison, then added a field goal as the clock ran out to lead 10-0.
With just over four minutes left in the second quarter, the Muskies found themselves with good field position after Webb intercepted a screen pass by Harrison and brought the ball back down to the 13-yard line, setting up a single point after a missed field goal by Aaron Kellar to put the black-and-gold on the scoreboard.
“I had that coach [Charles Bazilewich] coach me in Winnipeg [during the Red River Cup] so I knew what he was going to run, so I just came in and stopped it,” Webb explained about how he was able to make the big play.
“Braden has some excellent ball skills, which you saw on that play, and the two picks that he made today were both big and really put us back in the game,” Canfield added.
Also during the second quarter, last year’s starting quarterback, Tobijah Gerber, who suffered an ACL injury prior to the start of the season, came into the game and completed a couple of passes to help the team move downfield—much to the approval of those on hand.
“He has his surgery set for this week and he really wanted to go out there and make a couple of passes before that, so we braced him up with an ACL brace and let throw a few passes,” Canfield explained.
“I didn’t want to use him extensively as I didn’t want him to get dinged up before his surgery, and I was a little bit worried about that, but his mom gave me the okay to let him go out there.
“We’re trying to appeal to have him come back for next year but we’re not sure if that will be granted, so that could have been the last game for him in high school football,” Canfield added.
After some big plays by the defence to start the third quarter, including another interception by the Muskies’ defensive backs, the black-and-gold offence drove down the field with some nice passes by starting quarterback Ben Whitburn and some speedy runs by Colton Craig, with Craig bursting into the end zone from two yards out to put the Muskies down by only a field goal (the extra point try sailed wide right).
“The effort that Colton Craig had out there was unreal as he was fighting for yards without a helmet on at times,” Canfield recalled.
“Ben got put into a rough situation this year as our plan was to have Tobijah as the starter and have Ben groom into the role for next year, but he’s been doing very well so far,” Canfield added.
Following Craig’s touchdown, though, it was the Spartans who took over the rest of the way thanks to the powerful running plays of Erasmo, which helped set up a two-yard quarterback sneak by Harrison and a pair of field goals by Gurpinder Khosa to seal the victory.
“Fort played us real tough and we were lucky to escape here with a win,” Moskal said after his team improved to 3-0 on the season.
“They moved right down the field on their first drive of the second half, and I think that scared the guys a little bit as we fought right back soon afterwards.
“You can tell, though, that they are only a play or two away every time, and that is one team that I would be afraid to face in the playoffs,” Moskal stressed.
The Muskies, meanwhile, will be spending this week working on their conditioning skills in practice before they hit the road Friday to take on the Daniel McIntyre Maroons.
“We have been focusing so much on our responsibilities in our plays, and so on and so forth, that we haven’t run much for condition, and you can really tell as the game progressed that our guys got tired,” admitted Canfield, who won’t be on the sidelines in Winnipeg this Friday due to work commitments.
Shane Beckett will take over the coaching reins instead.
“We also need to start looking at the guys who are just playing special teams, or are not playing very much, to get in there and give our guys who play a lot a bit of breather, but those guys really need to step up,” Canfield stressed.
“At practice, they just hang out at the back and don’t jump in for plays, and that is something that has got to change because we can’t run a roster of 40 players with only 25 guys playing,” he reasoned.