Muskies fall to 0-4

The Muskie football team came up short in Winnipeg last Friday afternoon, falling 37-8 to the Grant Park Pirates to remain winless on the season.
While Grant Park (3-1) is a tough, experienced team and the loss was by no means an upset, it remains another familiar chapter in a season quickly slipping away.
“We had a good first half,” Muskie head coach Vince Gouin said. “We played right to the end.
“The Grant Park coach said, ‘We got a couple quick touchdowns in the second half, but your guys didn’t quit,’” Gouin related.
The Muskies trailed 10-8 a few minutes before halftime, allowing a touchdown before the break.
The Pirates then blew it open in the second half, to which Gouin just tipped his cap, noting a few strong plays by the opposition and some superior speed.
“They are very much a senior-led team,” Gouin noted. “The Dryden game [a 7-2 loss the previous week], our players should’ve won that game . . . this time, we played hard, had a good half, and just kind of ran out of gas.”
The team’s lone touchdown against Grant Park—courtesy of a one-yard dive by Tyler Brusven—was only their second of the season.
Both touchdowns were scored from the one-yard line, but Gouin said he doesn’t see that as being much more than coincidence.
“Any touchdown is a good touchdown, just like any goal is a good goal,” he remarked.
One of the stars for the Muskies was defensive back Jesse Brunetta, who led the team with 10 tackles, as well as drawing a single point and recovering a fumble that led to the team’s only major.
Brunetta thought the Muskies’ play was “pretty good” against the Pirates, but is firmly focused on this Friday’s game against the Kenora Broncos.
“Our offence is getting better every practice, every week,” he said. “We’re definitely working hard for a good game. I think by the end of the week, we should be well-prepared.”
The game against the Pirates marked the midway point of the season. While going winless wouldn’t be a Muskie first, no one on this team is wanting to post an 0-7 record.
The chances of the Muskies finding a win before the playoffs aren’t so remote, though, with two of the squad’s last three games coming against teams with losing records.
The Muskies play at Kenora this Friday (kick-off is 1 p.m.) and Gouin figures his team’s odds of winning are better in this game than last.
“Every time we play someone from Northwestern Ontario, it’s match-to-match, mouth-to-mouth football,” he said.
The Broncos’ offence is far more potent—having scored 69 more points so far this season than the Muskies—but their 1-3 record has, in fact, come from games with three of the same four opponents the black-and-gold have faced.