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Vikings blank Gryphons in junior semifinal

Ethan Porter tosses a pair of touchdown passes to lead undefeated Hammarskjold into the junior football final.
Carter Oikonen Ab Alnabi
Hammarskjold's Carter Oikonen bursts throught the Superior defence, past the Gryphons' Ab Alnabi on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017 (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com).

THUNDER BAY – The Hammarskjold Vikings are a win away from a championship.

The junior squad on Sunday punched their ticket to next Saturday’s final against the five-time defending champion St. Ignatius Falcons, slamming the door on a Superior Gryphons squad that gave them a run for their money earlier this month when they met in the regular-season finale.

It was different this time around.

The Vikings defence held its ground most of the day and took advantage of several Gryphons miscues, turnovers stalling the first-year Superior team in its tracks and handing Hammarskjold an 18-0 semifinal triumph.

Cooper Dubuc caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Ethan Porter and as did running back Justin Nadon early in the third, all the offence Hammarskjold would need to keep alive the dream of an undefeated title-winning season.

“It feels really amazing,” Porter said.

“We put so much work into everything. Just getting to the final feels like a huge accomplishment.”

Nadon, who led the Vikings ground game all season, echoed Porter’s use of the word amazing to describe the feeling of the championship berth, setting up a rematch of last year’s final that saw the Falcons come out on top 30-14.

“Our team came out hard today and we were determined to win,” Nadon said. “Next week we just need to come out even harder than this week.”

While both offences struggled on Sunday, it was the Vikings defence that proved to be the difference maker in the early going.

Hammarskjold pounced on a punt muffed by Superior star Owen Steele late in the second quarter. A 60-yard scamper by Nadon set up Debuc’s touchdown catch, the Vikings taking an 8-0 lead into the half.

Twice in the third the Vikings intercepted Gryphons quarterback Ari Uusitalo, Caleb Mangoff grabbing the first, Liam O’Neill snatching the second, to snuff out Superior drives. O’Neill also had a fumble recovery in the final period.

Nadon put it away in the fourth, taking the ball to the opposition 31 before a facemask penalty dropped the ball on Superior’s five yard-line. He’d take it in from the 10 on a short pass from Porter, dashing the rest of the way to the goal.

Carter Oikonen added 15-yard field goal late in the fourth.

“We challenged the boys to compete play in and play out every day in practice and every repetition to come prepared mentally and physically to play this game because that’s a good football team that were were playing in the semifinal today,” said Vikings coach Matt Steele.

Saturday’s final goes at 1 p.m. at Fort William Stadium.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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