Muskies suffer season-worst rout

The Muskie football team took on a tough team—cranky and emboldened by its first loss of the season—and bore the brunt of it, falling 65-0 here Friday afternoon against the heavily-favoured Kelvin Clippers.
“I was happy with the effort,” Muskie head coach Vince Gouin said. “The boys played right to the end.
“The other coach said some of the boys played really hard. . . . [But] just like the season’s gone on, we’ve had mental breakdowns on plays,” he added.
In many respects, the Muskies (0-6) simply were overmatched and overwhelmed. The Clippers’ speed was incomparable to the home side, and runners routinely broke blocks and evaded tackles across the field.
And when the Muskies had the ball, they ran hard into Kelvin but first downs were rarely made.
The home side was only briefly within shouting distance of the “red zone,” and Gouin switched to reserves early in the onslaught, in which Kelvin amassed nine touchdowns and a 35-yard field goal.
The lone significant drive for Muskies came early on a string of penalties by Kelvin (first roughing the kicker on a punt, then a pass interference call) which was capped by a strong rush by running back Matt DePiero that took the black-and-gold past the 40-yard line.
A brutal punt followed, which led to a touchdown, and the next possession saw quarterback Blake Wepruk throw a pass right into the waiting arms of a Kelvin defender to make the score to 21-0 to end the first quarter.
The momentum swung convincingly and permanently to the visitors thereafter. A Kelvin extra point attempt blocked by Tyler Brusven was one of the few highlights for Fort High.
Strong safety Dan Brunetta, who had earned WHSFL defensive player of the week honours for racking up an armful of tackles against the Kenora Broncos the previous game, turned in another solid performance, but said the loss was a hard one to take.
“I thought that some of the linemen were missing their blocks,” he noted. “We needed to catch the ball, and you gotta catch it in the air when they’re turning.
“And, they’re a good team.”
The loss was the most emphatic of their winless season—and carried off the gridiron.
First the team lost wide-out Mike Sonnasinh in the first half, who had to be taken off the field by an ambulance after suffering a high ankle sprain. He will be out for at least a week.
Then a rash of other injuries were discovered after the game: Josh Scott with a broken bone just below the thumb, Jesse Brunetta with water on the knee, and Jarid Sandelovich with an eye injury suffered away from the field.
And that’s not to mention the expected bumps and bruises from a game of football.
While Gouin said losing a game by such a large margin was easier to take than a tough, close game the team could have won, Dan Brunetta said he found a game like this more difficult to swallow.
“I think it’s hard to take because when you’re getting blown out of the water, it really takes you out of the game,” he reasoned. “You just wanna reload, and just get ready for the next game, but you can never forget it.”
The Muskies were mismatched against Kelvin, who are 5-1 only because of a 23-22 loss to the undefeated Sturgeon Heights Huskies the week before. But their final game of the regular season this coming Friday may well prove to be their best—facing a 1-5 opponent in the Kildonan East Reivers.
The Reivers’ lone win came against the Kenora Broncos last week, and their 191 points allowed so far this season matches closely to the Muskies’ 195.
Gouin said Friday’s game was “very much” one that needs to be quickly forgotten, with the odds so stacked against them and a more winnable game on the horizon.
“We want to end the season on a positive note. It’s been a tough season for coaches and players, and they showed some of their frustration today [Friday],” he added.
Brunetta said this Friday is important with the season wrapping up.
“It’d be nice to at least win a game going into the playoffs and go 1-6, just to show them we can play,” he said. “I’m feeling we might have a pretty good chance because we do get a pretty good week of practice.”
The game starts at 6:15 p.m. in Winnipeg.