Joey Payeur
Mike Cuzzolino sent in the ground troops to topple the enemy, with just enough air support sprinkled in to make it a successful mission.
The head coach of the Muskie football team watched his squad march to a 20-18 victory over the visiting Tec Voc Hornets in Fort High’s WHSFL season-opener on home turf Friday afternoon.
The Muskies (1-0) racked up 266 yards rushing, mixed in with two touchdown passes by quarterback Brandon Whitecrow, then turned to the defence for a last-minute stop to hold off the Hornets (0-2).
“This first win is a huge confidence boost for us,” said Cuzzolino.
“The guys had to believe that all the hard work they were putting in was for something and now they do,” he noted.
Fort High boomed its way to a lead on the first play of the game, with Cam Lidkea drilling the opening kick-off through the end zone for a single.
But Tec Voc responded with two majors via a pair of short end runs to go up 12-1 after neither one was converted.
“They torched us on those outside runs,” Cuzzolino admitted.
“The linebackers think they are playing containment properly but they’re not doing it,” he stressed.
But the Muskies stuck to their game plan and continued to pound the ball at the Hornets, with Sekina Scheibler and Doug deBernardeaux doing most of the damage.
The success on the ground drew the secondary for the Hornets closer to the line of scrimmage—playing right into Whitecrow’s hands.
With time ticking down in the second quarter, the pivot spotted deBernardeaux open in the back of the end zone and hit him to cut the lead to 12-7 (Lidkea missed the convert missed after a bad snap).
Cole Kowalski then teamed up with Whitecrow to put the Muskies in front on the first drive of the third quarter.
Whitecrow, who was 3-for-10 for 106 yards and one interception but also had three passes dropped, found Kowalski behind the defence for a 35-yard catch-and-run play for a 13-12 lead (the convert attempt was blocked).
“Getting down 12-1, the Muskie teams over the last few years don’t battle back from that but this group did,” lauded Cuzzolino.
“That’s the type of championship stuff that winning teams are made of.
“After we scored the first one, it gave our guys some confidence,” he noted. “They realized they could do it.
“We went into halftime and just talked about how we were beating ourselves more than they were beating us,” Cuzzolino added.
“We told them they weren’t overmatched at all, and to just stay focused and stay positive and keep battling.
“Our penalties on offence in the red zone were preventing us from scoring,” he remarked. “And on defence, it was just guys getting caught chasing and not taking proper angles of pursuit.
“The boys came out at half and they believed they could do it.”
Kenton Bowles, who had an impact on both sides of the ball Friday, smashed his way in from the Hornets’ one-yard line to extend the Muskies’ lead to 20-12.
But the crowd—enjoying their first game watching from the newly-constructed bleachers at Muskie Field—had to do some significant nail-biting before this one was over.
Tec Voc struck again on an end run from 12 yards out with six minutes left to pull within two.
After a series of penalties led to the two-point convert being tried four different times, Matt Booth came up with an interception in the end zone to deny the Hornets the tying points.
“Matt read the play well,” said Cuzzolino. “He’s a smart kid and he’s got good hands since he’s also a receiver for us.”
Trying to run out the clock on their own scoring drive, the Muskies instead fumbled the ball back to the Hornets with just under two minutes to go.
Tec Voc made it down to the Muskies’ 20-yard line but tried to get closer instead of attempting the go-ahead field goal.
Bowles barrelled in from his linebacker spot and stripped the ball from the Hornets’ running back, then recovered it himself with 37 seconds left to snuff out the drive.
Cuzzolino marvelled at the full team effort, especially from what was considered a suspect offensive line entering the season.
“The O-line was absolutely outstanding,” praised Cuzzolino.
“They opened the holes and played as a unit.”
Dylan Ossachuk had a team-high 11 tackles for the Muskies, with Bowles adding eight and Byron Stewart seven before the latter left with a knee injury that has him listed as day-to-day.
Baeley Fulford, who had a sack along with another by Damon Nyberg, didn’t make it through to the final gun after a lower-body injury that also has him day-to-day.
The Muskies next head on the road tomorrow to play the College Lorette Collegiate Scorpion (2-0), with the winner getting sole possession of first place in the Currie Division (‘A’).
“We have to be assignment competent. You have to know what your job is and execute it,” stressed Cuzzolino, whose team passed the double-digit mark in penalties against Tec Voc.
“Lorette is going to make us pay for the type of mistakes we made in Friday’s game,” he warned.
“We have to limit the mental mistakes, fix those few issues, and play mistake-free football.
“We have to believe we can do anything that we put our minds to,” Cuzzolino added.
The Muskies’ next home game will be their annual Homecoming contest, which is slated for Friday, Oct. 1—at a special 1 p.m. start time—against the Daniel McInytre Maroons.
