Churchill stays hot

The Churchill Trojans steamroll kept rolling along on Friday, though they didn’t quite flatted their opponent this time around.

Receiver Justin Fui, who caught a pair of touchdowns on the day, said he and his teammates seem to have lost a little focus against the St. Patrick Saints, although not long enough to get to worked up about.

“At the beginning of the game we just didn’t execute,” said Fui, who finished with 126 yards on seven receptions, his touchdowns coming on a 16-yard strike from Jarred White to open the scoring in the first and an eight-yard catch late in the fourth that wrapped up the 29-7 win.

White has now thrown for 1,359 yards in six outings, with 21 touchdowns, miles ahead of Hammarskjold’s Alex Nemmec-Bakk in both categories.

Fui said he knows it wasn’t the Trojans best effort of 2012.

“Well, we had those first two drives that we executed on, but after that penalties just killed us.”

It was a first-place, Fort William Stadium battle worthy of the moniker, at least through three quarters.

The Saints did what few SSSAA teams have been able to do this season, get to White before the rocket-armed QB could get the ball away.

Three times St. Patrick defenders took him to the ground behind the line of scrimmage, and twice defenders managed to get between White and his intended target, picking him off for just the fourth and fifth time in six games.

But while Saints defence showed itself capable of stopping White at times, the Churchill star showed he was equally capable of evading them when the game was on the line.

White finished with 334 yards and three scores through the air, also connecting with Devyn Chenier on a first-quarter touchdown that made it 14-0 after one.

But the Saints (4-2-0) would not give up the fight, the offence driving down the field time after time, only to fall short in the Trojans’ (5-0-1) zone.

They did find the end zone just before the half when St. Patrick quarterback and veteran Jake McKee hooked up on a 32-yard touchdown that took the Saints into the break trailing by eight.

St. Patrick appeared to have the momentum back in their favour at the start of the third, after Cameron Hardy picked White off with seconds to go at the half, a ball that was tipped at the line. Then on the opening drive White was sacked for a big loss on a third-down play by Ryan Rosteick, giving the Saints the ball at midfield trailing by eight.

“We lost our concentration in the game and when that happens to us, we tend to get down,” Fui said. 

They found their happy place, though it wouldn’t come until the fourth, the two sides trading possessions in a scoreless third, unable to move the ball very far.

The Trojans started marching as the quarter neared its end, however, and Allen Chen finished the lengthy drive, busting up the middle on the first play of the fourth, the six-yard score making it 22-7.

Fui set up his own second major with a 30-yard third-down catch, then White his Andrew Ktytor on another third-down play that kept the drive alive once again.

The Vikings take on Hammarskjold next Friday at 5 p.m., a game that will likely decide top spot in the senior boys standings.