Trojans tame Tigers

The Westgate Tigers ran the ball down the throats of opponents all season long.

Recognizing that, the Churchill Trojans closed the box on a chilly late Saturday afternoon, shifted the Tigers offence to neutral and surprised the football faithful at Fort William Stadium, winning their second senior high school championship in three seasons.

Quarterback Jared White fired a 24-yard touchdown pass to Justin Fui on his first play from scrimmage, then hit Devyn Chenier from 40 yards out five minutes into the third quarter, leading the Trojans to the upset 18-0 win.

"It feels great," said White, who was 8-14 for 76 yards on the afternoon.

"It makes it feel a little better, losing to them in the regular season."

The Trojans lost 19-11 to the Tigers to start the 2011 campaign, were nudged in a shootout by Hammarskjold the following week, then rolled off seven straight wins, including two in the postseason, to capture their 12th senior title.

"We kind of got things rolling on offence and we put a new one in. After those first two games I think we kind of figured it out and it's worked well for us for the most part," White said.

Knocking off prohibitive favourites has become old hat for Trojans coach Mike Doromko.

"The last time we won a city championship, we beat an undefeated team as well," said Doromko, who will pilot Churchill once more this season, at the upcoming Northern Bowl in Toronto, where the Trojans will take on a team from Sault Ste. Marie.

"Like I said last week, it was a confident group. They were going to bring it to Westgate. I don't think Westgate knew what was coming, and that worked into our favour."

Rather than wait to see what the Tigers were bringing to the table, Doromko said they decided earlier this week they would take it to them instead, setting the tone themselves.

"That was something we saw from our last game, and we were kind of kicking ourselves for not doing it that last game," he said, referring to Churchill's unorthodox practice of having place kicker Eh Gae Moo attempt all-but-impossible field goals, to make up for non-existent punting skills.

It's what earned them great field position on their first score.

"We knew we were going to that one and it definitely worked for us. They adjusted by going to a three-man line, and we had some troubles, just because they had so many guys back in coverage. I think we ran the ball effectively in the third quarter. We ran the clock big time. It was a team effort and it's been like that all year."

The defence also played a huge role, none more so than Jason Blekkenhurst, who twice snagged errant Dylan Stajkowski passes, two of the three picks the none-too-tested Tigers quarterback surrendered on the afternoon.

"The defence just came together and were a force to be reckoned with," Doromko said.

Westgate coach Mike McNally said he didn't want to blame a snowy Fort William Stadium field for their offensive struggles, a team used to putting up points, 209 in seven regular season games, by far the best the league had to offer.

"Certainly we had a hard time moving the ball. They stuffed the box and when we couldn't move we had to try some different options," McNally said. "We threw some costly picks, but overall I thought our defence played a strong game today.

"They were the better team today... Our game is to run the ball, and chug the ball and take time off the clock. On this field today we couldn't move it, so we had to change our game plan pretty quickly."