THUNDER BAY – Manerplaw Winning and Iene Auger weren't yet born the last time the St. Patrick Fighting Saints captured a high school football title.
Coach Mike Marcon, on the other hand, was a handful of years into his coaching career at the southside high school, and never thought he'd have to wait 21 years to lead the Fighting Saints to another championship win.
It's all in the past now.
Winning scored three touchdowns on Saturday afternoon and Auger hit Konner Prevost over the middle for an 84-yard score, leading first-place St. Patrick to a 32-20 win over the defending champion St. Ignatius Falcons, denying their crosstown rival it's sixth title since 2014.
What a way to finish a high-school career, said Winning, the most dominant player in the senior circuit this season, who ran for 204 yards in Saturday's final.
Knowing it ended a two-decade drought made it that much sweeter.
“You know, it means everything. This is our team and I told my guys in the huddle that we're gong to be the team that does it. We're going to be the first team in 21 years that's going to pull it off. So I'm glad we did and I'm just so happy for the guys.”
Winning said the Saints were simply relentless on the gridiron.
“We just kept on going. I told the guys, play all of the fourth quarter. Finish everything and just give it to them and we did that.”
The Falcons were not pushovers, by any means.
Having rallied to be the Saints on their home field last month, St. Ignatius took a first-quarter lead on Saturday, erasing Winning's 19-yard field goal with some trickery. Lining up to punt, holder Michael Danchuk, the Falcons quarterback, pulled up and lofted a pass to burly Jayden Belcamino, the surprise touchdown coming with two minutes to go in the first.
The Saints, undaunted, needed just one play to regain the lead. Prevost gobbling up half the field after hauling in Auger's pinpoint pass.
St. Patrick's defence kept the pressure on Danchuk and the Falcons, forcing a turnover on a bad snap, and the Fighting Saints took over at their own 48. Winning scampered 43 yards to the St. Ignatus two and took it home on the next play, upping the St. Patrick lead to 17-7.
St. Ignatius got the seven points back on their next drive when Lucas Dupuis, who had zero yards on three carries to that point, barrelled in from three yards out, the Falcons trailing 17-14 at the half.
Winning rushed 49 yards for his second touchdown of the day early in the third, but the Falcons made it a one-score game 1:44 into the fourth, Danchuk finding Harry Tsekouras open in the endzone. However, the extra point was no good and St. Ignatius found itself down 24-20.
The Fighting Saints put it away midway through the quarter when Winning crossed the goal line after a 15-yard run.
“It's amazing, being the first time to win in that long. It just feels awesome,” said Auger, who finished 6-for-10 for 107 yards through the air.
“I'm really happy for all the coaches, everybody who put in the work the whole time. We have a great ground game, so that set up the pass. I think we just stuck to what we could do and we worked it out.”
Tyler Robertson, playing his final high school game, had 136 yards on the ground to lead the Falcons.
The Saints advance to the OFSAA championships later this month. It was their first senior final since 2014.
