THUNDER BAY – Marti Martinez capped a 75-yard game-winning drive with a two-yard touchdown run Sunday that sent the Hammarskjold Vikings to the high school senior football championship game.
The hulking Vikings back barrelled in with 24 seconds to go, earning Hammarskjold a 21-15 triumph that ended the St. Ignatius Falcons impressive championship run at three.
The winning score came 55 seconds after the Falcons had kept their semifinal hopes alive after Nic Cull raced in from nine yards out to pull St. Ignatius within two, Jake Robertson completing the comeback when he hauled in a two-point conversion from quarterback Jordan Maki.
Quarterback Gavin Perkins keyed the Vikings final drive, hitting Hunter Campbell for a 30-yard play to start things off, then later hooking up with Nolan Florindo for a 38-yard reception that landed Hammarskjold on the Falcons two-yard line.
“It was crazy,” Perkins said.
“We called for a screen then audibled a fly down the sideline. The offensive line held me for my blocking and Nolan came up and made the beautiful catch and we ran it into the end zone for the win.”
Vikings coach Mike Judge tipped his cap to his Grade 11 pivot.
“For him to audible to that play to get us down to the one-yard line with that pass, it’s just a terrific maturity out of a very young kid with a lot of talent,” Judge said.
The triumph ended a couple of years of frustration for the Vikings, who went down to playoff defeat at the hands of St. Ignatius the past two years.
“It was insane because last year we lost to Ignatius – and the year before – in the final. To beat them in the semifinal, this way especially, it was an unreal feeling, nothing you can compare it to, honestly,” Perkins said.
Florindo said his nerves nearly got the better of him ahead of his big catch.
“But you know what, I trusted my instincts and got through and I made the catch and we’re moving on,’ Florindo said.
“We’re the Vikings. We keep our composure. We keep positive, we’re never negative and move onto the next play.”
Hammarskjold scored first, Devon Hoier booting an eight-yard field goal for the only points of the opening quarter.
Zack Kuzik extended the lead in the second, hauling in a 21-yard TD pass from Perkins, the Vikings taking a 9-0 lead into the half, Hoier missing the first of three extra points on the afternoon.
But the Falcons weren’t ready to give up just yet.
Cull wrapped up an 80-yard drive to open the second half, scampering in from six yards out to cut the lead to 9-7, but with 15 seconds left in the third Vikings running back Caleb Perzan bolted 47 yards untouched up the field, the touchdown giving Hammarskjold a 15-7 lead.
St. Ignatius marched right back down the field on their next possession, but Cull fumbled on the two-yard line, Dalton Giertuga snatching up the loose ball to end the threat.
Then after what appeared to be a three-and-out, Devon Hoier punted the ball off the side of his foot, the Falcons set to get the ball back deep in Hammarskjold territory.
Hoier had another idea, racing to the ball and pouncing on it beyond the markers, which under Canadian football rules, gave the Vikings a first down.
Hammarskjold will take on the Sir Winston Churchill Trojans in next Saturday’s final.
