At halftime, things weren’t looking so great for the St. Ignatius Falcons.
Trailing the upset-minded Hammarskjold Vikings 20-0, the turnover-prone Falcons looked nothing like a 4-1 squad fighting for top spot in the senior high school circuit.
Cue the comeback.
Led by a three-pronged rushing attack that punched the ball over the Fort William Stadium goal line three times Friday in the second half, the Falcons stormed back to edge the Vikings 23-20, Ryan Grandell booting a 16-yard field goal for the win in the final minute of play.
It wasn’t the start St. Ignatius coach Tyler Dennis was looking for, but he’ll certainly take the end result, the win keeping the top-seed hopes alive.
“We came out pretty flat,” Dennis said. “I think we had about four turnovers in the first quarter and we just kept saying, ‘Keep your heads high boys. This is not the way we play. We know we’re better than this. It’s a long game and we just have to keep fighting.’
“We played some of our best football in the second half, for sure.”
Unable to stop the Vikings run in the first half, Dennis said they made the necessary adjustments during the break.
“We changed a few things on defence to force them to take that gamble, to move the ball, and it paid off in our favour. I wish we had started doing that a little earlier in the game,” Dennis said.
The gamble he referred to was Hammarskjold coach Mike Judge’s decision to fake a punt midway through the third quarter from deep in his own zone.
It led to a one-yard score by St. Ignatius’s Wyler Dawd, cutting the Vikings lead to 20-7 at 9:13 of the third.
“We actually had a punt call on and something opened up to the left side and the St. Ignatius player, full credit to him, he made a great play. It was a game changer,” Judge said.
The Falcons got the ball back again before the quarter ended, and cashed in again, Kyle Hughes bolting up the middle for a 58-yard TD scamper.
“I just did what I could,” Hughes said. “It’s all the blocking really. We work as a team, we play as a team.”
Confused about whether or not Hughes had actually crossed the goal line led the Falcons to inexplicably go for two. The convert – which Dennis thought was a running play – failed and St. Ignatius trailed 20-13.
The Vikings offence rebounded in the fourth and quarterback Keenan Postans – who scored on a 63-yard dash down the sidelines to give Hammarskjold its 20-0 lead before halftime – had the team marching into St. Ignatius territory.
But an errant throw was picked off by Hughes, who returned it 22 yards, ultimately setting up Liam Fors for a 17-yard major, tying the game 20-20.
“That team finished the game. We played a good half and couldn’t seal the deal. When you get a team like that down, you’ve got to finish it. And we didn’t,” Judge said.
Hammarskjold’s Bradley Beekin, who finished with 82 yards on the ground, opened the scoring early in the contest from nine yards out.
Emmitt MacFarlane added a second score on a one-yard run after the Vikings forced an early turnover deep in Falcons territory when Dawd was unable to handle the hand-off from Falcons QB Thomas Walser.
Churchill 38, St. Patrick 0: Justin Fui ran for 187 yards and three scores and completed nine of 15 passes for 138 yards and another touchdown as the Trojans (5-1-0) kept pace with St. Ignatius (5-1-0) and Westgate (5-1-0) atop the SSSAA standings.
Westgate 40, Superior Collegiate 12: Josh Whitehurst returned a 44-yard punt and a 94-yard kickoff for touchdowns to lead the Tigers to the win. QB Thomas Stadey and receiver Ben Neilopovitz connected for an 85-yard score for Superior (0-6-0), who also got an 83-yard kickoff return from Wyatt Maunula.
