THUNDER BAY – For the 14th and final time, the Churchill Trojans are senior high school football champions.
They got there on the back of two-way star James Basalyga.
The Trojans wide receiver and defensive back on Saturday caught eight passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns, including a 102-yard catch and run on Churchill’s first offensive play of the day, to lead his team to a come-from-behind 37-26 championship game win over the Hammarskjold Vikings.
Basalyga also scooped up a fumbled punt return and ran it 21 yards to the end zone for a fourth major on the day, and to boot, picked off Hammarskjold quarterback Gavin Perkins twice in the second half to help seal victory in a game that saw the Trojans trail by as much as 14 late in the opening half.
“I just had to flip a switch to this game. I felt like I’ve been saving it. I just wanted to unleash. That first run gave the opportunity. I kind of got going. I think we lost the momentum (after that), but everybody was able to pick it back up.”
The end result is all that matters, he added.
The Trojans, who will take on North Bay’s West Ferris Trojans in next week’s Northern Bowl, won’t play another down of football in Thunder Bay, the school scheduled to close in June.
Winning that final crown was the goal all season long.
“It means everything. I know so many guys who have played for this high school. I know it means a lot to them. Our coach let us know he had a lot of support coming from everywhere,” Basalyga said. “I think we did a good thing and I think it’s going to go down in history. No one can take that away from us. We just won the last title we can. It’s crazy.”
Quarterback Dylan Ford, who threw all three scoring strikes to his favourite target, said it was an incredible way to bid the program adieu.
“Eight-and-oh, that’s something that hasn’t been done in a long, long time by any school, so it means a lot to send the school out undefeated with a championship,” said Ford, who connected on 13 of 20 pass attempts for 290 yards and three touchdowns, running in another major from a yard out to cut the Vikings lead to 20-13 late in the first.
After the Trojans jumped in front 6-0, the Vikings struck back in a hurry, running back Hunter Campbell rushing three times for 71 yards and scoring from five yards out to even the score 6-6.
The Trojans turned the ball over on downs on their own 54 and Campbell, who finished with 256 yards on 24 carries, broke two more 20-plus yard carries, opening the door for Caleb Perzan’s five-yard TD run, the Vikings leading 14-6 after one quarter.
Campbell did most of the leg-work on Hammarskjold’s next drive, giving way to Marti Martinez’s third-and goal scoring run that made it 20-6 and starting to look like an upset-in-the-making.
That’s when disaster struck.
Pinned deep, Vikings quarterback Gavin Perkins fumbled and Nathan Heerema pounced on the loose ball, setting up Ford’s one-yard scoring run.
The Trojans got the ball back late in the second and found the end zone again, Basalyga hauling in a four-yard pass from Ford to tie the game at the half.
Baslyga made a diving two-yard touchdown catch in the final minute of the third to give Churchill the lead, then put the game out of reach with his fumble return on a Dyk Taw punt.
Campbell added a second score late in the fourth, but Basalyga picked off Perkins twice in the final 2:05 to put the game away.
“These kids refused to quit. They refused to lose,” Churchill coach Mike Doromko said. “These kids are all winners in my books.”
