Churchill's Prochnicki scores four times, Trojans waltz to shutout win

The Churchill Trojans ground attack was almost unstoppable on Friday afternoon.

In a tight three-way battle for top spot in the senior high school football standings with St. Ignatius and St. Patrick, the Trojans chewed up the Fort William Stadium turf, scoring six rushing touchdowns en route to a 57-0 rout of the last-place Superior Collegiate Gryphons.
Churchill did it on the back of three players.

Dyk Taw rushed for 224 yards and a touchdown, Eric Warren ran for 61 yards and one score and caught two receiving majors, including an 85-yard strike from Karl Waffler, and Braeden Prochnicki rushed for 146 yards and four touchdowns and was named co-player of the contest.

“This win is very important to us,” said Prochnicki, whose team improved to 5-1.

“We want to go into the playoffs confident. Our goal is to take it and win the whole city championship. We came out with the mindset to win and came out with the victory.”

The Trojans won in spite of themselves at times, two scores called back because of infractions. In fact, the 90 yards in penalties they took more than doubled the paltry 43 yards of offence put up by the Gryphons, who dropped to 0-6.

“We have to credit the whole team,” Prochnicki said, asked about the sheer number of rushing yards the Trojans were able to pile up on a cold and rainy afternoon.

“Without them, none of those runs would have happened. It was a team effort and we just did what we could.”

As for his four-touchdown performance, it wasn’t something he was aiming for, but he’ll take it, the teenager said.

“It felt great. I just come out and do my best. I want to win every drive and that’s my goal.”

To coach Mike Doromko’s credit, facing a team that had scored just 39 points in five games entering Friday’s match-up – none against Churchill in a 52-0 loss earlier this season – he played his second-stringers most of the way.

Running back Paul Bystrican never touched the field and quarterback Tallon Morris was also on the sidelines the entire second half.
It was by design, Doromko said.

“That’s what we wanted to do this week. We were going to rest all those starters. No offence to Superior or anything, but their numbers are really low and we wanted to get those No. 2’s on the field as much as possible. They turned out great,” the veteran coach said.

There is one play he’d like to have back.

With time winding down in the final minute of the fourth, confusion reigned on the field and instead of taking a knee, Prochnicki scored a 53-yard touchdown. In hindsight, the player should have taken a knee, Doromko said.

The Trojans led 28-0 at the half.