Joey Payeur
From the Eagles’ clutches into the Tigers’ cage.
The Muskies could dwell on what likely was the team’s worst-ever “Homecoming” game loss—a 57-0 drubbing at the hands of the Dryden Eagles on Friday.
But there’s little time for pity parties.
The playoffs get underway tomorrow at Nomads Field in Winnipeg with Fort High (0-6) facing the much-improved St. John’s Tigers (3-3) in the first round of the WHSFL Bowl playoffs, which features the bottom seven teams in the Currie Division (‘A’).
“St. John’s are a good team but in the playoffs, everyone is 0-0,” reasoned Muskie head coach Mike Cuzzolino.
“It’s a new season.”
The Tigers scored 129 points in their six games on the back of an air attack featuring quarterback Jordan Thomas, the division’s third-leading passer in terms of yardage, and receiver Payton Yakimishyn, who was second overall in both receptions (22) and yards (380).
“Our defence will be ready, and we’ve tweaked a few things offensively to help us try and get the ball moving and keep their offence off the field,” said Cuzzolino.
“If our guys want it bad enough, they need to go out and take it,” he stressed.
“Anything is possible.”
Seemingly anything would be more possible at this point than stopping the gridiron avalanche that is Dryden (6-0), which outscored its opponents 294-53 and had three shutouts during the regular season.
“Dryden was who we thought they were: a good team that executes well but beatable,” Cuzzolino remarked.
“We had a game plan that should’ve been successful,” he added.
“But poor execution on our part, especially on special teams, allowed for Dryden’s offence to be on the field too much and our ‘D’ was just so tired.”
The Eagles wasted little time showing it would be a long day for the Muskies, with quarterback Jarett Hicks burst through a gap on the right side for a 49-yard touchdown run before the game was 90 seconds old.
He then passed to Randy Russell for the two-point conversion.
Cuzzolino, meanwhile, went with Grade 9 rookie Brady Meeks in his second career start. But after two incomplete passes, a high snap on third down got over punter Sean Huziak, who could only fall on it at the Muskies’ 41-yard line.
That was the first of eight turnovers on the day for the Muskies, with the second coming on their next drive.
Meeks completed three passes in a row, including two to Dylon Woolsey, but then was stuffed on a quarterback keeper on third-and-three to hand the ball back to the Eagles.
Three plays later, Dryden was in the end zone again courtesy of a 29-yard catch-and-run by Aiden Bibeau for a 15-0 lead after the convert.
Life got worse for Meeks on the first play of the next drive as he was sacked and fumbled the ball back to the Eagles at his own 13.
Dryden head coach Neil McLeod then dug deep into his playbook—and dug a deeper hole for the Muskies at the same time—on the very next play.
Setting up in a “wildcat” formation, the ball was snapped directly to running back Liam Wrolstad, who then pitched it behind him to back-up quarterback Carter Armstrong.
Hicks, meanwhile, flew under the radar as a receiver on the play and didn’t have a Muskie anywhere near him when he reeled in Armstrong’s toss for the score, with the missed extra point leaving the score 21-0.
The subsequent onside kick ricocheted off the helmet of Muskie Chris Cochrane after taking a strange bounce and into the waiting arms of Dryden’s Gunnar Anderson, although the Eagles turned the ball over on downs eight plays later.
“We had some bad luck, but bad luck comes from poor preparation and failure to execute,” noted Cuzzolino.
“Our guys need to prepare better,” he stressed.
“We had a few plays where our contain was lost on punt and it cost us huge, and a couple times of lack of awareness to jump on those loose balls.”
Veteran Muskie quarterback Brandon Whitecrow then got his turn to try and spark the offence to start the second quarter after being benched in favour of Meeks, who Cuzzolino decided was needed more at the receiver position after the opening 12 minutes.
“I started Meeks because Brandon was absent from [last] Thursday’s practice,” Cuzzolino explained.
“I know it was [the provincial Grade 10 literacy test] day, so Brandon didn’t have any classes that morning and he didn’t have a way into school in the afternoon,” he added.
“But guys have to show up for practice so I decided to sit him the first quarter.”
Whitecrow’s day started with two incomplete passes, followed by the Eagles blocking the ensuing punt.
Two plays later, Wrolstad blasted up the middle and into the end zone from seven yards out.
A punt on the Muskies’ next possession had to be redone after a penalty for too many men on the field.
The do-over was returned 53 yards to the house by Russell, who broke four tackles on the way to the end zone to make it 35-0 and send the game into running time.
An already-quiet home crowd was hushed even further when Sekina Scheibler, back after missing three games, re-injured his right foot while making a tackle on a punt return.
Scheibler’s pain-wracked cry of “Not again!” was accompanied by him pounding the turf in agonized frustration.
The team’s leading rusher this season, who ironically was limited to defence and special teams on Friday to try to protect him from further injury, had to be helped off the field.
Aaron Scheibler did his older sibling proud by forcing a fumble by Bibeau and recovering it at the Muskies’ 29 on the second play of the subsequent drive.
But just before halftime, the Eagles ran back a Muskie punt to widen the lead to 42-0.
Things didn’t go any better in the second half as the Eagles tacked on two more long touchdowns, including yet another on a punt return, while adding an single point.
Whitecrow, meanwhile, was harangued by Dryden’s defence—going just 2-for-10 passing for only 10 yards and one interception while managing to lead the team with 22 yards rushing.
But with the likes of Damon Nyberg and others getting no running room, Fort High actually finished the game with just eight yards rushing on 12 carries.
“We have been struggling to run the ball all season,” Cuzzolino admitted.
“We run an inside zone scheme for runs and our guys are just too young right now to have it down pat,” he noted.
“We need to get faster and more aggressive across the offensive line and sustain our blocks better,” Cuzzolino stressed.
“[And] our running backs need to do a better job at running upfield and hitting the hole hard.
“We need to be able to move the football to allow our defence to get rested, and be able to gain field position and score points,” he said.
