Alex Gingras scores three times, Robertson twice to lead St. Ignatius to gridiron win

The Westgate Tigers accomplished one thing no opponent of the St. Ignatius Falcons has done this season – find the end zone.

But Hunter MacKenzie’s 44-yard, second-quarter dash up the middle wasn’t nearly enough for the Tigers to pull a high school junior boys football upset at Fort William Stadium.

The Falcons, unbeaten since the 2011 championship game and heretofore unscored upon in 2015, rolled off 32 unanswered points and improved to 4-0 with a 32-6 triumph.

Alex Gingras, on loan from La Verenderye, rushed for 183 yards and three touchdowns and Jake Robertson caught two touchdown passes from quarterback Jordan Maki to lead the St. Ignatius attack on Thursday afternoon.

“It was a good game. We were slow at the start, but we picked it up and had awesome blocking by our offensive line,” said Gingras, sporting pink Find a Cure stickers under his eyes in support of breast cancer research.

Falcons coach Mike Savioli said the start was lethargic, uncommon this season.

“Once we did get going we finally made some blocks,” he said. “A lot of it came down to us just making poor blocks at the beginning. We, for some reason, weren’t motivated today. Maybe that was my fault. Hopefully we can start cleaning things up and play some better football.”

After kicker Lou Pernia cut the Tigers lead in half with a 20-yard field goal early in the second, Gingras raced the gauntlet for a 42-yard ground score, the Falcons taking the lead for good midway through the quarter, ahead 9-6.

Pernia added a 30-yard field goal before the half.

Gingras was at it again to start the third, charging his way through congestion, a last second spin move enough to keep distance between himself and Westgate defender Kieran Dacre, the last athlete with a  chance to prevent the 74-yard score.

The Tigers had a chance late in the third when Cole Arnold pounced on a loose ball fumbled by Maki, but the Falcons defence put a stop to any further movement down field and on their first touch of the fourth, Gingras ran 38 yards untouched for his third major of third major of the day.

Maki connected with Robertson for a 40-yard TD strike to wrap up the scoring.

Hitting the 4-0 mark is great, Savioli said.

“This is a talented football team and we’ve got to keep self-motivated and keep pushing ourselves to get better because everything is going to keep tightening up in the playoffs.”