THUNDER BAY – Defence wins championships.
After losing a heartbreaker in last year's high school junior football title game, the St. Ignatius defenders were ready for retribution – and much of it came at the expense of Mitchell Papineau.
The Westgate quarterback was picked off four times and the Falcons defence recovered a pair of fumbles on Saturday afternoon at Fort William Stadium, scoring a late rouge to take the lead for good in St. Ignatius's 23-15 championship win.
Phoenix Chau and Nolan Poirier, who also snagged an interception, scored one-yard touchdowns, the latter sealing the deal for the Falcons with less than a minute to play in the fourth.
Poirier said after the Tigers battled back from a 9-0 deficit to tie the game 15-15 late in the third on a 20-yard hook-up between Papineau and receiver Tyler Rose, the Falcons didn't let the momentum slip away.
“It's all just a team game. There were a couple of plays and we were getting down on ourselves. We just had to pick ourselves back up and that's what we did,” Poirier said.
Winning feels fantastic, he added.
“Last year we almost had an undefeated season and the last game of the season we lost by one touchdown,” Poirier said,. “This year we came back and that's how we play Falcon football.”
The Falcons got on the board first, after pinning the Tiger deep. Rather than punting, the Westgate offence decided to take a knee in the end zone for a two-point safety four minutes into the contest.
The move ultimately didn't pay off, as after holding the Falcons to a two-and-out, Papineau was picked off by Poirier, who ran the ball back 41 yards to the Westgate 15.
A facemask penalty charged to the Tigers planted the ball on the one-yard line and one play later, Chau burst up the middle for the major and a 9-0 St. Ignatius lead.
“It definitely gave us a lot of momentum. It was Nolan's pick, though, that really helped us. He made a really far run and I knew I had to get a touchdown because everything was on the line (today), Chau said.
Matteo Iossa added an 18-yard field goal for the Falcons three minutes into the second and the two teams battled for field position until a muffed snap on the punt found the Tigers starting on the St. Ignatius 35-yard line.
Papineau, who threw five incompletions and two interceptions on his first seven pass attempts, finally connected on his eighth, hitting Cole McVety for a 33-yard gain, tackled on the Falcons one. Papineau was rebuffed on a QB sneak, but Tyler Rose found a hole on the next play for the touchdown, hauling in a Papineau pass for the two-point conversion and the Tigers trailed 12-8.
Another Iossa field goal made it 15-8 at the halftime buzzer, but the Tigers still had plenty of play left in the tank.
Westgate forced a fumble out of the hands of Aiden Palko and made the most of the chance, Papineau connecting with Rose for a 23-yard touchdown, the extra point tying things up 15-15.
Early in the fourth the Falcons jumped in front again when Preston Popovic booted a punt through endzone from 32-yards out, the rouge giving St. Ignatius a 16-15 advantage.
Poirier it out of reach on the Falcons final drive.
St. Ignatius coach Martin Furtado said both teams put on an entertaining show, giving the fans at Fort William Stadium full value for their money.
“It was nice to come back this year. I've been at this a long time and I must give Westgate a lot of credit. I've never seen a team that was able to get so much success through the air. So we knew that was coming and we did prepare for it,” Furtado said.
“In junior football, you don't get the advantage of having a victory lap, so you get what you get and we had a very special group this year, great leaders, great athletes. We had depth and they really wanted to win this year. I was just fortunate to be a part of this team.”
