THUNDER BAY – The St. Patrick Saints weren’t about to go down without a fight.
But the defending senior high school football champions just didn’t have enough in the tank to pull off the upset on Friday night.
Twenty-five seconds after Nicholas Lento-Veneziale booted a 25-yard field goal to lift the Saints into a 10-10 tie with three minutes to go in regulation, Hammarskjold’s Gabriel Stieh, who had touched the ball twice in the contest, got the call and raced 17 yards to the St. Patrick endzone, earning the Vikings a 17-10 win and a spot in next Saturday’s championship match.
Hammarskjold is looking for its first title since 2008.
“We couldn’t have played a lot better, but we still pulled it out in the end,” said Stieh, the younger brother of Lakehead University track star Amy Stieh.
“They 100 per cent made us work for it. It was a very good game on both sides.”
The winning touchdown was set up by a 44-yard run by Hammarskjold running back Owen Renn, who got the Vikings on the board in the first quarter with a one-yard rumble up the middle, a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty tacking on an additional 15 yards.
It was tough win, said Renn, but one that showed the Vikings they can’t take anyone for granted.
Hammarskjold led the Superior Secondary Schools Athletic Association standings at 5-0-1, while the Saints finished in fourth at 0-5-1.
On paper, the Vikings should have romped to victory.
In reality, they did just enough to carry them forward.
“Going into it they were the fourth-place team, so I’m really glad we didn’t underestimate them too much,” Renn said. “They are a good team. We did need to come out and we did need to play and I think we did that.”
That doesn’t mean they weren’t nervous down the stretch, neither team really able to gain much traction inside the 20s on a chilly night with the wind whipping across the Fort William Stadium field.
Renn’s last-drive run certainly helped the Vikings rediscover their confidence.
“Yeah, it was a big turning point in the game,” said Renn, who finished with 112 yards rushing on the night.
“Sitting on the sidelines, watching your defence like that is definitely a stressful thing. It’s a big part of the game and was just good that we were able to get the ball back and win it.”
The Saints owned the ball for the first nine minutes of the final quarter, their 17-play drive augmented by a pair of costly penalties that kept St. Patrick’s hopes alive. The first was a 15-yard facemask call late in the third, the second a roughing the kicker foul after the Hammarskjold defence had stopped the Saints at the Vikings 50.
Unfortunately for the Saints, penalties go both ways.
Thanks to the rushing efforts of Connor Brindley and Brett Lovis, St. Patrick marched the ball to the Hammarskjold five. A holding call gave them a first-and-goal from the 15. Isaac Kaukinen got the call and lost six yards and the Saints were left with no choice but to attempt the game-tying field goal.
They got the ball back down seven and 2:35 to play, but Lovis’s third-down pass fell short and the Vikings were able to run out the clock.
Kaden Busch had the Saints touchdown, a 45-yard second-quarter run that made it 7-6, a rouge later evening the score.
Hammarskjold coach Mike Judge said they knew they were in for a battle.
“They weren’t going to go down without a fight, and to their credit, they really made us work tonight. Hats off to both groups, but we’re happy with the win,” Judge said.
The Vikings will meet the winner of the other semfinal between St. Ignatius and Westgate. a
