THUNDER BAY – The Westgate Tigers gave the St. Patrick Saints an early scare, but in the end the high school junior football semifinal went pretty much as expected.
Manerplaw winning scored three times in the first quarter alone, on runs of 39, 57 and 15 yards, to power the defending champion Saints to a 52-20 triumph to send them to a second straight championship game.
Kiran MacKenzie, Devin Gibson and Elijah De Leon also had rushing touchdowns for the victorious Saints, their other major coming courtesy of a 66-yard Ryder Bodnar interception return of Zachary Gothard’s lone pass attempt of the ballgame.
“It was a fun game. Everybody was working hard,” said Gibson, who broke free down the right side of the field and cruised home from 44 yards out as St. Patrick raced out to a 35-6 lead before the second quarter was two minutes old.
“It’s all about teamwork. It’s no one person. Maner(plaw) is a big team leader, but we’ve got lots of people stepping up to the plate. We had a lot of people injured.”
Gibson admitted the Tigers finding the end zone early in the contest gave them a bit of a scare.
Winning broke through 2:18 into the contest, but the Tigers Lucas Romeo struck back in a hurry, cruising into across the Saints goal line from 37 yards out.
But Westgate, playing without punter Hunter Rande were forced to go for two and failed, leaving St. Patrick clinging to a one-point lead.
However, 34 seconds later the Tigers were back in the lead for good, and one again it was winning, who by halftime was a fixture on the bench as St. Patrick coach Dave Battistel was able to rest his starters.
Winning added his third major of the night with 33 seconds left in the opening quarter, the Saints taking a 28-6 lead after 10 minutes.
Battistel said it’s a great feeling being back in the championship game.
“It makes me proud of our guys, who worked hard all season to get back here and we’re looking forward to the opportunity,” said the veteran coach, whose team rolled through the regular season a perfect 6-0-0.
“I’ve got to hand it to (the Tigers). Mark Nowak has a great staff. They came out prepared and eager to give us a battle,” Battistel said. “They’ve got to be pretty proud of giving us a run. They put up 20 points and that’s a big.”
Nevin Gowanlock, who took it to the house from 47 yards out midway through the third, and Trapper Murphy, who bowled in from the Saints one-yard line, to make it 45-20, but it was as close as Westgate would get.
The Saints will take on St. Ignatius in next Saturday’s championship match. Kickoff is 12 noon at Fort William Stadium.
