Mitch Calvert
The Muskie football team is left to ponder what could have been after a 38-5 loss to the Garden City Fighting Gophers on Friday in the opening round of the WHSFL playoffs.
The black-and-gold held the Gophers’ high-risk, high-reward offence in check during a scoreless first quarter, then grabbed a 3-0 lead in the second on a 22-yard field goal by Matt DiPiero set up by 27-yard completion to Jeremy Whitehead and a 32-yard pass to Matt Mutz.
But the Gophers stormed back with a pair of touchdown catches to lead 14-3.
The Muskies then engineered a march of their own, aided by two long runs by fullback Mason McKay, but an interception inside the Gophers’ 10-yard line killed the drive.
After the defence forced the Gophers to take a safety, closing the gap to 14-5, a long Muskie drive fell short in the red zone thanks to yet another interception inside the Gophers’ 10-yard line to close out the first half.
“The effort was there,” said Muskie head coach Vince Gouin. “It’s 12 guys playing together so no one takes the blame, but untimely turnovers cost us.
“When you are in the red zone, you have to score,” he stressed. “The defence played as well as they could have, they kept us in the game. And really the offence moved the ball, too, but couldn’t finish off drives.”
A late field goal by the host Gophers to make it 17-5 was the lone scoring in the third quarter. But then the floodgates opened—thanks in large part to more Muskie turnovers.
The Muskies, desperate to close the gap, had a third-down pass intercepted early in the fourth, setting up a quick Gophers’ strike to give Garden City a 24-5 lead.
On the ensuing kick off, the black-and-gold fumbled on a reverse, although the defence held and got the ball back in the hands of the offence.
But yet another third-down pass resulted in an interception, and the Gophers once again made the Muskies pay with a touchdown strike.
The Muskies’ reverse play worked on the next kick-off, but Whitehead dove for extra yardage at the end of the run and fumbled, giving the Gophers good field position again. A long touchdown pass on the next play iced the victory.
“It’s running time and, of course, they throw deep to run up the score,” Gouin said. “It was a little unnecessary and I was pretty angry at that coach.”
Whitehead made up for his fumble on the next kick-off, bringing the ball 55 yards to Gopher territory. But a final turnover on downs ended Fort High’s season.
All three Northwestern Ontario teams were ousted from the playoffs last week. Dryden lost 21-0 to Tec Voc while Kenora fell 45-0 to Sturgeon Heights.
The Fighting Gophers next face St. Paul’s 2 in the Kas Vidruk Division semi-finals this Friday in Winnipeg. Tec Voc and Sturgeon Heights meet in the other game.
