THUNDER BAY – It hasn’t been as dominant a season from Tyler Robertson as the St. Ignatius Falcons have enjoyed in the past, but at least he saved the best for second-last.
The burly Falcons running back scored four times on the ground on Friday night as the second-seeded St. Ignatius squad clinched a spot in next Saturday’s senior football final against the St. Patrick Saints, crushing the illness-decimated Westgate Tigers 71-27 at Fort William Stadium.
The defending champions led this one from start to finish, scoring on the first two drives of the game to open a 15-0 lead before the first quarter hit its halfway mark, and roared out to a 44-15 halftime lead. It was more of the same in the second half, the Falcons scoring at will and building confidence ahead of the championship game.
“It’s definitely good to go in with momentum, but we’ve got to make sure that we keep that momentum going throughout the game. That’s one of the reasons we won today. We had the momentum,” said Robertson, who rushed for 149 yards, said it feels great to contribute, but none of the touchdowns were of his own doing.
“It all comes down to the O-line. Good blocks mean good runs,” Robertson said.
“It was just hours of studying film and being very serious about this week. It’s playoffs, it just kicks our team into a whole different gear.”
It seemed like every trick the coaching staff pulled out of their playbook worked.
Quarterback Michael Danchuk called his own number and scored from 12 yards out. Lucas Dupuis was given the ball twice in the Falcons opening two drives, and scored touchdowns of 17 and 45 yards, finishing with a team-high 152 yards on the ground.
They gave the ball to Robertson and he overpowered the Tigers defenders, plowing up the middle for a 27-yard touchdown run that made it 29-14.
They went to the air and Danchuk found Harry Tsekouras for a 40-yard touchdown. Robertson ran another one in from the 19-yard-line, and yet another from 24 yards out, upping the Falcons lead to 44 at the time.
An eight-yard run by Robertson made it 65-27 and Danchuck capped the scoring with an over-the-middle pass to Gunnar White, the Falcons receiver hitting high gear after the catch for a 54-yard touchdown.
The Tigers (3-3) were simply outgunned by a team that put up 157 points in six games in the regular season, finishing in second place at 4-2.
“It is a lot of points put up. It’s crazy to even look at,” Danchuck said. “But even with all those points and long-yard drives that we had, there were still many mistakes we made, lots to fix this week. But we’re coming out hard on Saturday.
“We want to keep (St. Patrick) to a bare minimum, if possible and let our offence drive through and get ahead.”
Westgate got on the board late in the first, Andrew Romeo finding Brock Macemchuk for a 20-yard touchdown. Romeo cut the lead to seven again later in the second, pounding the ball one yard up the middle over the Falcons goal line, then floated a perfect pass to Macsemchuk in the third, the Tigers receiver doing the rest on a 64-yard score. Nick Battagali had the other Westgate touchdown, an eight-yard run less than a minute into the fourth.
On-field officials ran the clock for the final period, with the game all but out of reach.
