THUNDER BAY -- After only one game the St. Ignatius Falcons have established themselves as serious threats to this season’s high school senior football crown.
That will happen after a dominating victory against the defending champs.
The Falcons rolled to a decisive 37-10 season opening victory against the Westgate Tigers on Saturday at Fort William Stadium in the first game on the city’s high school football calendar.
The St. Ignatius offence was powered by the thunder and lightning ground duo of Liam Fors and Jake Puskas, who combined to rush for 307 yards while finding the end zone on three occasions.
“It’s like a dynamic duo,” said Puskas, who finished the contest with 139 yards on 12 carries with one touchdown. “It works well together.”
St. Ignatius head coach Tyler Dennis identified speed and toughness as two qualities both backs possess and said they complement each other well.
“Liam is a quick guy on the outside and Jake is a very tough runner in the middle. That kind of combination is tough to defend,” Dennis said.
“They’re having fun out there.”
Puskas provided the boom for the Falcons backfield, opening the scoring with a 23-yard major that St. Ignatius built to 13 points following consecutive field goals from Ryan Grandell.
The Westgate offence struggled out of the gates, turning the ball over on their first two possessions but were able to pick up a field goal on their third drive to get within 10.
That’s where Fors struck, with the quickness of a lightning bolt.
Perhaps capitalizing on space to the outside, he broke touchdown runs of 75 and 66 yards to put the exclamation mark on St. Ignatius posting 28 first half points. The second year Grade 12 racked up 168 yards and two touchdowns on the ground on only 7 carries.
Even though they are defending champs, the Tigers squad that took the field was a lot different than the one that hoisted the trophy last November.
Key pieces of that team have graduated, leading to new players having to adjust to fill those holes.
Westgate head coach Mike McNally said the season opener was a learning experience for his group.
“A loss early is not always such a bad thing because people realize real quick there are lots of things to learn in football,” McNally said.
“Some of the young guys who are first time seniors saw the speed of the game today.”
Westgate was able to put one touchdown on the board, with quarterback Dillan Tataryn connecting with wideout Josh Whitehurst on a nine-yard score.
The Tigers were able to move the ball down the field in the late stages of the half, getting into the red zone but turned the ball over on downs after picking up an illegal procedure penalty prior to the snap that put them 14 yards away from the first down marker.
Another chance presented itself when the Tigers recovered a St. Ignatius fumble just a few plays later, but Westgate responded by giving the ball right back with a fumble. It was their third turnover in the opening 24 minutes.
That found the Tigers down 28-10 at the half.
The fact there were scoring opportunities was one of the few positive takeaways for McNally.
“I thought offensively although we do have room for improvement we moved the ball well. I think ultimately it’s continuing to work hard in practice and good things will happen,” he said.
St. Ignatius forced a safety in the second half and the Tigers were never able to get the train back on the tracks. The Falcons added another ground score early in the fourth quarter.
Last season the Falcons emerged as a bona fide title threat, before falling short in the semifinals after squandering a late lead.
They know trophies aren’t won on the first day of the season.
“This is just the start and we can’t get ahead of ourselves,” Fors said. “It’s a really long season.”
In the late game the Hammarskjold Vikings picked up a 38-24 victory over the Churchill Trojans.
Vikings quarterback Keenan Postans went 16-24 for 389 yards and two touchdowns in the air, while also rushing for three majors. Receiver Bryce Jorgenson had four receptions for 185 yards and one score while defensive back Brad Dutchak picked off three Trojans passes.
In Week 2 Westgate will take on Hammarskjold while St. Ignatius will face off against the St. Patrick Saints, who started the season with a bye week.
