Muskies struggle in home rout

Mitch Calvert

The Muskie football team suffered its worst defeat of the Winnipeg High School Football League season here Friday afternoon, falling to the visiting St. Paul’s Crusaders by a score of 44-0.
The loss dropped the Muskies to 2-4 in the second-tier Kas Vidruk Division, with their regular-season finale slated for this Friday against the 6-0 Sturgeon Heights Huskies in Winnipeg.
The Crusaders ran the ball all over the black-and-gold in the first half. They rushed in their first touchdown on a third down try and continued to extend drives through their running game, adding two more touchdowns to lead 21-0 at halftime.
“Our outside linebackers kept crashing in, and they just had a hard time moving out and containing everything,” Muskie head coach Vince Gouin said. “That opened up space for their running back to the outside, and he was fast.”
Amid the wreckage of their most lopsided defeat of the season, Gouin said running back Matt DiPiero provided some solid yards on the ground despite the fact fullback Tyler Abma again was held out with a hand injury.
“He was definitely our warrior of the game,” Gouin enthused. “He battled hard the whole game, handled all the kicking responsibilities and did a good job, and then he came in as quarterback during the last drive when we needed to mix things up a bit.”
DiPiero gained 61 yards on 21 carries, with offensive co-ordinator Andrew George agreeing that was one of the few positives to be taken from Friday’s defeat.
“We got a bit of a running game going, which has been a thing that has been dogging us since Week 2, but other than that we were pretty horrible,” George remarked. “We should have the running game dialed in with Abma back for the playoffs.”
Starting nose tackle Tyler Romyn didn’t play against St. Paul’s, either, after leaving the Tec Voc game on Oct. 3 with a neck injury—creating a huge void on the defensive line.
“He was a big loss,” Gouin admitted. “We didn’t have that big push we’ve had all season up the middle on defence, and that made a big difference.”
With both Romyn and fellow lineman Jimmy Whitburn (back spasms) out, the Crusaders were able to rush quarterback Dan
Brunetta.
“The boys that were in there did a commendable job, but every once and awhile they would miss their block or turn the wrong way, and it wasn’t just one person but all of them at different times,” Gouin noted.
George said the team’s preparation leading into Friday’s game wasn’t up to par, either—especially with a top-notch opponent coming to town.
“We lost that game during the week,” George stressed. “We didn’t practise well and we haven’t been practising well for a couple weeks now. It was kind of a rough game for Dan but it was a rough game for everybody.
“That happens to even the best guys.”
Brunetta only attempted five passes as the Crusaders had the bulk of the ball possession on offence, but DiPiero came in as quarterback on the final drive and completed one-of-two throws during garbage time.
The black-and-gold took several offside penalties on defence that cost them even more yards.
“All season we’ve been steady [with avoiding offside calls], but I don’t know if that quarterback had them spooked a little bit or what,” Gouin said. “The two touchdowns they got in the fourth quarter, you could just see how tired our guys were then.”
Jeremy Whitehead had 10.5 tackles to lead the charge defensively while Matt Mutz added seven tackles and a first-half interception.
“Every team we’ve played, I find after watching tape that they make four or five big mistakes every game,” Gouin noted. “But they [St. Paul’s] only made two mistakes all game long, one being the interception in our zone, and then we got them to fumble but it went right through the arms of one of our guys and they recovered it.
“They capitalized on our mistakes and didn’t give us much.”
Gouin said Mason McKay was around the ball a ton on defence, as well, and stressed the Muskies’ effort level was pretty strong.
“Our special teams played decent, they got a long run out of one return, but other than that we contained them fairly well,” he noted.
Despite positive news on Abma’s return in the not-too-distant future, the outlook isn’t quite so rosy for receiver Blake Wepruk. He has a strained medial collateral ligament and could be lost for the rest of the season, no matter how far the Muskies advance in the playoffs.
The black-and-gold are all but assured a sixth-place finish in the Kas Vidruk standings no matter what this week’s outcome against the Huskies yields. Even if Maples (1-5) wins its season finale against St. Paul’s, the Muskies would get sixth spot by virtue of winning the head-to-head game between the two teams.
“That was kind of the goal, to avoid a first-round match-up with St. Paul’s or Sturgeon [Heights],” George said. “You have to hand it to them, they’ve just been better than everyone else.”
It looks like the Muskies could face the Garden City Fighting Gophers (4-2) in the first round of the playoffs, although Dryden (3-3) could flip-flop with the Gophers if they beat them in Dryden pending a tiebreaker.
“We’ve been hurt pretty bad with injuries, but if we won that first playoff game, anything can happen in that second round with injuries and whatever,” George insisted. “Anyone can win any given game.”