St. Ignatius upsets top-ranked Churchill for second straight football title

Pitia Modi just wins championships.

He’s not alone.

The standout defender helped ensure it happened once again, sacking Churchill quarterback on third down in the final two minutes of Saturday’s high school senior football title game, helping to lock down an 18-14 win for the St. Ignatius Falcons, their second straight.
For Modi, it was title No. 3, the first two coming with the junior Falcons in 2013 and 2014.

“It feels so great,” said Modi.

“I was over there crying. It was the greatest feeling. This is my third season of winning and I knew we were going to win this. We just had to believe, execute.”

The winning score came late in the third, running back Dray Theriault pounding it home from a yard out, set up in part by a 26-yard sweep left by receiver Josh Newransky and a nine-yard run up the middle by back Thomas Walser that pushed the ball deep into the No. 1-ranked Churchill Trojans’ territory.

Then the defence held on in the fourth.

“We had solid coverage,” Moti said. “Our d-line, our d-backs, everyone was playing good and this is what won us the game.”

Theriault is also riding three straight title wins, including back-to-back with the senior Falcons.

“It feels great. It feels amazing,” said Theriault, who also scored the winning touchdown in last year’s championship game.

“We’re going to OFSSA and I’m loving it.”

The Trojans put up a tough fight,  taking four minutes into the contest when Braeden Prochnicki blasted up the middle for an 88-yard touchdown reception from Morris.

Theriault and Prochnicki traded one-yard runs in the second for a 14-11 Trojans advantage.

Churchill wouldn’t find the end zone again.

“We fought hard and at the end, honestly, we just laid out our hearts and we came out on top,” Theriault said.

The Trojans had their chances in the fourth, a combination of good ball movement and misfortune on the part of the St. Ignatius defence.

Morris had Churchill on the move, but throwing into triple coverage, was picked off at the goal line by Jacob Javor, who ran it back to the St. Ignatius 47.

Starting on his own 21, Morris had the Trojans in striking distance with 1:32 to go, but Modi came up with the sack on third and six and the Falcons took over with a chance to run out the clock.

But they were stuffed on their first two plays, and sensing pressure, punter Anthony Valente took off running and only managed to get back to the original line of scrimmage, turning the ball over to Churchill on the St. Ignatius 24.

It definitely wasn’t a called play, Falcons coach Tyler Dennis said.

“I think what happened was in our semifinal game last week, they got pressure and it was blocked,” Dennis said. “They scored a touchdown off of it … I think our guy believed the best thing to do at the time was to just take it and run with it. I’d rather have him do that than get a block and have them score,” Dennis said.

“It gives us another chance with it. We did not call a fake punt. Trust me.”

The Trojans had early success moving the ball on the ensuing drive, but it stalled and on third down, Morris’ pass was deflected by Theriault and fell to the ground with 11 seconds left.