Skip to content

Vikings roll to semifinal win over Saints

Sam Krawczuk, Caleb Perzan rush for a pair of majors apiece to lead the Vikings into next week's championship.

THUNDER BAY – The Hammarskjold Vikings feel they let last year’s senior football final slip through their fingers.

They’re not about to let it happen a second year in a row.

The Vikings on Friday sealed a spot in next Saturday’s championship game, humbling the fourth-seeded St. Patrick Saints 56-7 on a snow-dusted Fort William Stadium field, winning for the seventh time in seven outings in 2018.

They’ll play the St. Ignatius Falcons, seeking a fourth title in five years, after they hammered Westgate 50-8 in the other semifinal.

Sam Krawczuk scored a pair of rushing touchdowns, matching teammate Caleb Perzan’s effort, crossing the goal line on runs of three and four yards in the opening quarter. Hunter Campbell, Justin Nadon and Gavin Perkins also scored from inside the Saints 10-yard line and Steven Burgess picked off St. Patrick quarterback Colin Wiseman and ran it back 70 yards for the major.

“It was team effort and everybody did their part and I feel like I just do the best I can always and so far so good,” said the burly Krawczuk, crediting the win to team ability.

“Every starting guy on our lines is a seasoned player and has a lot of skill and dedication to the sport. Everybody does their best – and our players are better.”

Getting a second shot at a championship is a great way to end his high school football career, he added.

“I’ve been playing this a long time and I’ve never won anything this big, or potentially this big, and I’d like to do that.”

Burgess said it’s a special team and he’d love to help bring home the team’s first championship in a decade.

“It’s been a while. We were there last year and we had it and it just slipped through our fingers. For the veterans, this means a lot to us. It shows how hard we’ve been working all year. We’ve been really pushing each other hard the five years I’ve been at Hammarskjold,” Burgess said.

“It’s nice to see that’s paying off. It’s nice to see that we’ve shown in every way that we belong there and really a win would just cement things for us.”

His touchdown came early in the second, upping the Vikings lead to 28-0 at the time.

“I was playing deep zone and I was up and I read it and as I was running I said, this has a chance, so I kept running. The guys were blocking all the way down the field.”

The Saints, who struggled on offense most of the day and did not have an answer for the Hammarskjold ground game, got their lone score late in the fourth, Cooper Pytych taking it home from nine yards out. The touchdown was set up by a 25-yard strike from Wiseman to Josh Tonolete that took the ball to the 19, a 10-yard penalty tacked on that moved it into a first-and-goal situation.

Vikings coach Mike Judge, whose team has outscored opponents 313 to 25 this season, said it all starts when they don’t have the ball.

“The defence played so well and gave us short fields. It’s sort of been the story of our season. We’re a pretty strong team and I guess we saw this one coming a little tonight and I guess we’re just focused on next week.”

St. Ignatius 50, Westgate 8: Nicholas Doucet scored four times on rushes of 20, 32, 17 and 32 yards to lead the Falcons back to the final after a one-year absence. Jake Robertson, Jordan Maki and Taylor Lehto, who scored on a 48-yard dash, also scored for St. Ignatius.



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
Read more


Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks