Falcons march to fourth straight junior football crown

It’s official. The St. Ignatius Falcons are a junior football dynasty.

Alex Gingras rushed for three scores, including a 68-yard scamper up the middle of the field in the fourth quarter and the Falcons cruised to a 29-0 win over the turnover-prone Hammarskjold Vikings on Saturday to capture a fourth straight junior high school crown at Fort William Stadium.

St. Ignatius, who hasn’t lost since the 2011 championship game, weren’t about to be denied, said Gingras, who ironically doesn’t even attend the school, on loan from La Verendrye.

“It was a great feeling. We played a good game, we started off slow, but in the end we took it,” said Gingras, who finished with 173 yards on the ground to lead all players.

“We got a few fumble recoveries and that really helped us.”

The Falcons defence was at the top of its game. Even when the Vikings managed to move the ball into scoring territory, St. Ignatius came up big – none bigger than Ben Kok, who picked up three loose balls, two of which led to Falcons scores.

“We work hard in practice every day and it finally paid off when we won the game today,” the soft spoken Kok said.

Both team’s offences were slow to start in the championship game, Gingras finally punching the ball in from three yards out in the final minute of the opening quarter.

The Falcons took over the ball on the Vikings 18 on a Hunter Campbell fumble, one play after Devin Giertuga picked off St. Ignatius’ Jordan Maki in the end zone to keep the game scoreless at the time.

St. Ignatius took an 8-0 lead into the half.

The Vikings gambled early in the third quarter and it proved costly when quarterback Stephen Burgess couldn’t handle the snap on a third-and-inches play deep in their own territory.

The Falcons took over on the Hammarskjold 17-yard line and moments later Gingras scored on a five-yard sweep to the left, untouched into the end zone.

Late in the third Burgess had trouble hanging onto the ball again. Kok scooped up the loose ball and was dropped at the one, setting up a Maki scoring lunge up the middle and a 22-0 lead. Gingras wrapped up the scoring in the fourth with his longest run of the afternoon.

Falcons coach Mike Savioli said the word dynasty might not apply, but that doesn’t mean he can’t recognize the significance of four straight titles.

“It’s junior football, but we’re very happy to have great athletes coming in on a yearly basis. And their work ethic and commitment has made it possible. We’re very proud of the way they’ve played going back four years now,” Savioli said.

The fourth title didn’t come easily, by any means, he added.

“We know Hammarskjold is a very good team, lots of talent and team speed. They’re well coached and 8-0 at the half, we figured that was the type of game it was going to be, that our defence was going to have to come through. And when our offence had the chance, we capitalized. It was a good result for us.”

The Falcons are the first team to win four in a row since Churchill took five straight from 1983 to 1987.