The Westgate Tigers and Churchill Trojans will end their senior football seasons the same way they started them.
The two south-side schools punched their tickets into the championship game by each registering a fourth quarter come-from-behind victory in their semifinals matchups at Fort William Stadium on Friday.
Justin Fui connected with Julian Schultz on a game-winning score with 35 seconds on the clock to lift the Trojans to a 35-31 win over the St. Ignatius Falcons, and Cody Sheedy scampered for the go-ahead major to push Westgate past Hammarskjold by a 22-17 margin.
This sets up a finals matchup between a pair of one-loss teams in a rematch of their season opening game in September, where the Tigers knocked off the two-time defending champs 22-14.
“We’ve been waiting for this game for a long time,” Trojans head coach Mike Doromko answered simply when asked about the looming championship matchup.
Leading the way into battle for the Trojans will be dual threat quarterback Justin Fui, who inherited the starting job just two weeks into the regular season.
His coach said Fui thrives in difficult situations, as he erased a 10-point fourth quarter hole for his squad.
“Justin loves a challenge,” Doromko said. “He’d rather be down by 21 because now it’s a big challenge. He’s going to go after it and make it happen.”
Make it happen he did, as Fui threw for three touchdowns and returned a kickoff for a major to spur his team past the Falcons.
St. Ignatius received second half touchdown runs of 15 and 45 yards to twice give the Falcons a double digit lead.
The Falcons had an opportunity to extend the lead to 17, but Wyler Dawd was stuffed at the goal line on third down by the Churchill defensive line.
That stop gave Fui an opportunity to lead the team down the field on a drive that culminated in the first of two touchdown receptions by Schultz.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Trojans recovered the onside boot to retain possession.
Fearful of the threat presented by Fui’s running ability, the Falcons allowed Churchill’s passing game to enter the red zone.
From there, Fui found Schultz wide open in the back of the end zone for the contest’s final score.
“We’ve really worked on his mechanics and he’s really gotten a lot more accurate,” Dromoko explained.
“He’s the threat. When he rolled out to the left on his last touchdown everybody came up because they had to, because he breaks tackles.”
The top-seeded Tigers kicked off the day of semifinals action avoiding an upset at the hands of the fourth-seeded Hammarskjold Vikings.
The Vikings entered the locker room at halftime nursing a 14-10 lead before the Tigers mounted a comeback.
“They don’t quit, and they’ve shown that all year,” described Tigers head coach Mike McNally. “They come out harder and harder as the game progresses.”
A pair of Brendan Phyllis field goals gave the Tigers a two-point edge, but a 47-yard field goal booted by Vikings kicker Ian Duckett gave life to the Hammarskjold upset bid.
Starting at their own 30, the Westgate offence kicked into gear quickly. Quarterback Dillan Tataryn hit Josh Whitehurst for gains of 19 and 9 yards on rollouts to the right.
That set up the game winning touchdown from Sheedy, as he sprinted 41 yards to the end zone to put the team ahead.
“I saw the hole, and all I was thinking about was the next cut and where I had to go. I looked downfield and saw one guy and cut, saw another guy and cut, just trying my hardest to get more yards,” Sheedy recounted.
“That was Tigers football at its absolute finest. It was the best run I’ve ever had.”
The senior football final is slated for next Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Fort William Stadium.
