THUNDER BAY – James Basaglya caught three more touchdown passes on Friday.
Most players would be ecstatic.
Not the Churchill Trojans wide receiver.
Despite hauling in scoring grabs of 75, 59 and 21 yards from quarterback Dylan Ford, the Trojans receiver said the team made too many mistakes that will cost them against tougher competition than the 0-3 St. Patrick Saints.
Basalyga said they’ll take the 36-19 win, their second in two outings in 2017, but need to clean things up on their bye week in order to march through the rest of the regular season with an undefeated record.
“We even practised better than that,” Basalyga said.
“We shouldn’t be playing like that, botching snaps. We didn’t read the coverage well today. It’s no fault of our quarterback. Our line wasn’t giving him as much protection as we needed. But I’m sure we’re going to have time to put in the work over the next two weeks.”
Ford, who also connected with Braeden Prochnicki for an 18-yard score in the second to give Churchill a 23-6 lead at the half, was equally unhappy with the way they won.
It could have been a lot cleaner, he said.
“We definitely have room for improvement there. There were a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball. Personally I look at it and know I made a couple of mistakes and there are a couple of plays I’d like back,” Ford said.
“But we have time in our bye week and we’re going to work to fix it.”
Not that he’s complaining about the start the Trojans are off to, looking to stand up to the three-time champion St. Ignatius Falcons.
“It’s just a stepping stone on our ultimate goal, which is a championship and a perfect season.”
Those things are good to keep in the back of his players’ minds, said Churchill coach Mike Doromko, calling it a sloppy start.
“We didn’t execute like we did all week. It’s disappointing when you have to come out here and perform and it just doesn’t happen,” Doromko said. “These guys held with it and we eventually got to where we needed to go, which was the end zone.”
Basalyga broke a scoreless tie eight-and-a-half minutes in, catching a short pass from Ford and flying down the right side of the Fort William Stadium field, untouched for the score. He then caught the two-point conversion for an 8-0 advantage.
The Saints answered early in the second, Chanson Rollason bursting past the goal line from two yards just three minutes in. Seventy-three second later, however, the Trojans were back in the end zone, Basalyga scampering in from 59 yards out on a pass from Ford.
His third score came early in the third and he set up their next TD with a 77-yard punt return, setting the stage for Dyk Taw’s three-yard scoring run.
Eric Nisioiu booted a pair of fourth-quarter field goals and Rollason punched on in from the one-yard line late in the final quarter, the outcome long since decided.
