THUNDER BAY – Tyler Robertson was a one-man wrecking crew, taming the Westgate Tigers with four rushing touchdowns on Friday afternoon.
The burly St. Ignatius Falcons running back, who rushed for 138 yards on the day, scored on runs of 9, 14, three and eight yards, leading his side to a lopsided 38-13 triumph, the team improving to 2-1 on the season.
The Tigers, who opened with a 75-yard touchdown run by Evan Basalyga, fell to 0-3, collapsing in the second half after trailing by just four at the half.
“I think our offensive line just clicked and that was a big change for the team. Hopefully we can improve even more looking forward,” said Robertson, who had a 109-yard touchdown run a week earlier in a win over St. Patrick.
Robertson didn't just score, he played a big role in getting the Falcons in position to score, chewing up turf all game long.
He had a 43-yard run that landed the offence on the five-yard run, and a 24-yard scamper that once again had the Falcons in the red zone.
Robertson finished off both drives, finding the goal line each time.
“I cut up to the left. I saw someone whose angle was a little off, so I cut it out to the outside a little bit more, broke a tackle and I barely stepped out of bounds. It would have been a nice touchdown, but whatever,” said Robertson of his longest run of the day. Though he didn't score on the play, nonetheless he found the end zone two plays later, the Falcons echoing the Tigers opening drive of the game with a major on the first drive of the second half.
St. Ignatius led 24-13 at the time and added seven to their total before the third was out, taking over at the Westgate 30 when Basalyga's punt slid off the side of his foot and travelled just 13 yards. Robertson scampered 12 yards to the 18, Liam Willmore took it another 10 to the eight and Robertson finished it off.
The Falcons wrapped up the scoring with 8:25 to go in the fourth, quarterback Michael Danchuk connecting with receiver Harrison Tsekouras on a 56-yard touchdown strike.
“It feels great. We came out and it was just a great play from the start. I rolled out and saw (Tsekouras) wide open in the flat and hit him. He cut it outside, broke a couple of tackles and took it to the end.”
Danchuk said Basalyga's opening drive score was just the motivation the Falcons needed.
“We took that as they were coming to play. We knew they were coming hard. They did it against Hammarskjold so we were going to do it against them too. We took that as fuel and just made the fire bigger,” Danchuk said. “We did it ourselves and showed them we were a hard-playing team.”
Basalyga also had a 15-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Romeo late in the second, giving the Tigers a 13-10 lead at the time.
Rob Hathazi had a 15-yard field goal, accounting for the Falcons other points.
