Muskies roll to another lopsided win

With three weeks between games, the Muskies could have been excused if they came out a little rusty in their exhibition game Saturday against Crocus Plains (Brandon).
But whatever rust had accumulated on their uniforms during that layoff was quickly shaken off as the Muskies steamrolled to a convincing 63-0 victory. It was their second-straight lopsided win against a Manitoba team (having dumped Sturgeon Creek 62-0 here last month).
“Considering we hadn’t played in three weeks, I thought we played well,” head coach Bob Swing remarked. “I think we stayed mentally sharp and we made some good adjustments.
“I think everything went okay and we had a chance to play 10 of our junior varsity players,” he added.
Part of the Muskies’ adjustment was handling the mammoth size of many of the Brandon players, which gave the black-and-gold trouble at time. But they quickly used their impressive combination of speed and aggressiveness to take complete control of the game by halftime.
“We had to make a few adjustments because they were a very big team. A huge team,” said Swing.
“It was the best hitting game of the season, including the game against the [Falls] Broncos,” he continued. “There were some big hits, especially on special teams. There were some hits that you could really hear.
“We had trouble with a few of the things that they did but we adjusted and, although they made some plays, they didn’t make any big plays,” he added.
The Muskies scored at will in the first half, showcasing their talented running game which often sliced through Brandon’s defence. All nine touchdowns came via the ground game, including four by Terry LaBelle and two by Dana Preston.
Steve Arpin, making his first appearance with the senior squad, Gary Wagner, and Scott Witherspoon also rushed for touchdowns.
Although the running game has been the team’s forte all season, the black-and-gold also showed off a new element to their offensive attack by throwing the ball effectively. Muskie starting pivot Gary Wager completed 10 of 12 passes while calling most of his own plays in the huddle.
Swing said his starting quarterback has come a long way in terms of maturity, which helps bolster an already potent offensive attack.
“It’s a progression thing we try to do with our quarterbacks,” said Swing of the coaches’ decision to let Wager call the plays. “I have the feeling that he understands what we’re trying to do on offence and what we’re trying to accomplish.
“We usually see that by the end of the year, our quarterbacks pretty much know what the defence is trying to do,” he noted.
Wager also was given free rein to call audibles at the line of scrimmage if the situation presented itself.
“We gave him the opportunity to audible at the line and he was pretty successful. He made some good decisions,” Swing noted.
Almost forgotten in the impressive offensive output is the fact the Muskie defence registered its second-straight shutout, and now has given up just 15 points in their last three games.
“They haven’t allowed a touchdown [in a long time]. They continue to make serious plays and everyone is getting into the other team’s backfield in a hurry,” Swing said, pointing to Jesse Rodrigues, Chad Canfield, Mike Glueheisen, Aaron Caul, and Pete Moen as standouts once again.
Glueheisen recorded the Muskies’ first blocked punt of the season on special teams while Caul picked off two Brandon passes, including a beautiful one-handed stab to snuff out a drive.
Defensive co-ordinator Brent DeBenedet said he was impressed with the “overall effort” of his defence, especially against the bigger Brandon lineup.
“They were a big team but we used our speed and quickness on our blitz combinations to shut them down,” he said. “They got a couple of first downs on us but the overall defence played so well.
“We blitzed them a fair amount and then went to man-to-man coverage,” he noted.
DeBenedet said part of the team’s success this season is its bend-but-don’t-break style, which keeps opponents from springing a big play against them. In fact, the Muskie defence hasn’t allowed a touchdown on a long drive for quite some time.
“Again, they got no big plays and nobody got deep on us. Everyone was in sync,” he stressed.
But while they Muskies had three weeks to prepare for the game against Crocus Plains, they had just one day to prepare for tonight’s matchup with the St. James Rods (comprised of players aged 17-20) at Winnipeg Stadium.
Swing said he expects the game to be a tougher one than the previous two routs over Manitoba teams.
“They run a similar style of offence and defence to us and they’ll be older, bigger, and stronger,” he predicted, adding the Rods also possess one of the “best” cornerbacks playing at this level.
“He’s a really good corner but every player has tendencies and we’ll be looking to see what he does,” Swing noted. “We’ll see how long we can tease him and then we’ll make a play.”
But while Swing said his team has a firm idea on how to handle St. James, he admitted they probably have a good grasp at what the black-and-gold do best, too. In fact, he suggested the Rods most likely will know what Muskies to key on.
“They’ve probably talked to other people and know that we have good athletes,” said Swing. “But if they come up to stop the run, then we can hurt them in other ways.”
In other football news, the Muskie coaches wanted to express their condolences to the family of Pete Fair, the well-respected former head coach of the Kenora Broncos, who passed away earlier this month at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.
He was 58.