It was a simple, but effective game plan on Friday by the Westgate Tigers.
The defending senior high school football champions, making their 2011 debut, stuck to the ground game, chewing up chunks of time en route to a 19-11 triumph over the Sir Winston Churchill Trojans, a team that couldn’t stop the run for most of the contest.
Hunter Mina was the star of the show offensively and defensively, crossing the goal line not once, not twice, but three times to provide virtually all the offense the Tigers needed in the second of three United Way Bowl games staged Friday at the revamped Fort William Stadium.
“It was an awesome way to start the season. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew Churchill was a good team. I just tried to hammer it in every time. I just tried to give it,” said Mina, back for a fifth and final season at Westgate.
Mina’s first score came five minutes into the contest, a 12-yard run that ended with the ball just crossing the plane, the convert hitting the upright for a 6-0 lead.
His second major was more textbook, a four-yard dash into the endzone some four minutes later, this time the two-point conversion failing to work.
Mina, who rushed for 75 yards in the game, wrapped up the Tigers scoring with a one-yard plunge late in the third quarter, putting Westgate up 19-4.
Exhausted, he said there was no way he was coming off the field.
“It gets tiring, but after a certain point it’s like neutral. You just adapt to it,” said Mina, who made a key sack on Churchill quarterback Jarred White in the final minute of the game, helping stop a fourth-quarter rally with the game on the line.
The Tigers, blanked 28-0 last year by the same Trojans squad to open the 2010 season, executed the game plan almost to a T, said coach Mike McNally, especially proud of a pair of crucial second and third quarter drives that ate up 10 and eight minutes respectively.
Neither drive resulted in points, but it effectively kept the ball out of White’s hands.
“We had a lot of motivation and they’re a great team. Churchill’s been taking it to us in the Bowl game for the past four years. We haven’t had a win. These guys were really focused and motivated. The running game definitely was our strength today, that’s for sure.”
Mina, who scored just three times last year and finished second on the squad with 275 rushing yards, was the driving force, McNally said.
“He didn’t leave the field, this kid. What I told the team was that I don’t know what Hunter’s parents did to make him that way, but I want to do the same thing to my son because it was an amazing game he had today.”
The Tigers, who also got several strong runs from Nolan Vanlenthe, weren’t perfect in this one, though looked pretty close for the first three quarters. The Trojans, who resorted to asking kicker Eh Gae Moo to boot lengthy field goal tries – including a pair over 100 yards – rather than punting to get the ball out of harm’s way, showed some pop as the clock wound down.
White hit receiver Rory McConnell with a 45-yard strike with two minutes to go, and after a quick possession by the Tigers, had the Trojans marching again before being sacked on successive plays to end the game.
“They ran the ball really well,” said Churchill coach Mike Doromko. “We were kind of at a disadvantage. We didn’t really know what they were going to do. We had no clue what their offense was going to be. There’s no tape. So it took us a little bit of time to get used to, so we have up (12) points in that time we were getting used to their offense.
“I’m really happy with our second half effort. Our offense actually turned it back on and we did what we were supposed to do.”
In other opening day play:
St. Patrick 29, St. Ignatius 14: Matt Mulawyshyn rushed for 62 yards and a score and ran back a kickoff 105 yards for another as the Saints made easy work of the Falcons in the afternoon opener. Rob DeGagne had 95 yards on the ground and a touchdown for the victors, while Wyler Dawd had 75 yards rushing and a major for the Falcons.
Hammarskjold 36, Superior Collegiate 21: QB Alex Nemmec-Bakk threw for 116 yards and a touchdown and scampered for another score to lead the Vikings to the win. Xander Hasell had 115 yards rushing and a TD for Hammarskjold. Will Reynolds rushed for 138 yards and a score in a losing cause.
