Massey edges Crocus in wild finish

The latest instalment of the rivalry between the Vincent Massey Vikings and Crocus Plainsmen on Thursday afternoon will go down in history due to late-game heroics on both sides.

Despite a decade of dominance, a Vincent Massey victory was by no means a foregone conclusion in the Winnipeg High School Football League outing in the AAAA Vidruk Division. After starting the year with a 0-4 record, Crocus Plains is a team that shows a lot of promise.

“It’s so fun to see how great Crocus is playing. It’s fun to see that we’re competitive … it’s so great for football in Brandon,” Vikings head coach Mike Steeves said after his team’s 16-13 triumph.

The two teams battled back and forth throughout the afternoon in a defensive battle that saw just 29 points thrown up on the board between the two sides.

Crocus Plains received the ball to start the game, and in a sequence that is familiar to Vikings fans, swiftly moved their way into scoring position thanks to a long catch by Maurice Chartrand.

What ensued next can only be described as a comedy of errors from both sides. Angered by a flag against Crocus, the Massey sideline took a penalty that kept the Plainsmen’s sputtering opening drive alive.

On the following play, the Plainsmen received another penalty for holding, which set them back and stopped what could have been a touchdown on the opening drive. The Plainsmen settled for a field goal booted through the uprights by Kendrick Breesmerch to take a 3-0 lead.

“We ran the ball like we wanted to,” said Crocus Plains head coach Mason Kaluzniak. “Our Grade 10 quarterback Jake Cory, man, what can I say about him? He’s such a stud; he’s so cool under pressure.”

With 6:21 remaining in the first half, Charlie Gauthier and the Vincent Massey offence got their first look at the field. On his first snap, Gauthier ran the ball 24 yards for a nice pickup, but ultimately, the Vikings were rebuffed by the Crocus Plains defence.

The rest of the quarter turned into a defensive chess match as neither offence managed to find their footing until the beginning of the second quarter.

“I thought our defence controlled the game,” said Kaluzniak. “We’ve got a Grade 9 playing defensive end and a Grade 10 who is brand new to football on the other side … and I thought both those guys were outstanding.”

Just before the end of the opening quarter, Gauthier once again found some room to run, springing up the middle for 16 yards that sparked the Vikings offence.

With 10:02 remaining in the first half, Gauthier faked the screen pass and launched the ball into the end zone for Thomas Seitz, who made an over-the-shoulder catch to secure the first touchdown of the game and give the Vikings a 7-3 lead.

The Plainsmen responded quickly.

With 8:20 remaining in the half, Cory made a beautiful pass to Bradley Pashe-Anderson that once again brought Crocus into Massey territory. Running back Gage Emberly continued the attack, taking the ball seven yards on the next play.

A few plays later, Cory himself picked up a critical first down on a quarterback sneak to keep the drive alive. It was first and goal, and Crocus Plains was poised to regain the lead before the end of the half.

With 1:36 remaining in the half, the Plainsmen needed just one yard to score on third down. However, the Vikings’ defence once again showed its strength, making a goal-line stop for the second time in as many weeks to retain the lead.

“It’s the old bend but don’t break,” said Steeves. “(That) was such a game-changer for us. It kills a bit of momentum, and Crocus had a lot of it all day.”

With a 7-3 lead going into the half, the game was very tight, with no room for errors on either side.

Crocus Plains struck first in the second half. Ethan Swiscoski, a standout for the Plainsmen on defence this year, recovered a fumble just under two minutes into the half that swung momentum to his team.

However, the rest of the quarter passed with the two sides locked head to head in a defensive battle where neither wanted to give any ground.

In fact, Vincent Massey’s defence scored the only points of the third quarter with just 52 seconds remaining when Crocus took a knee in their own end zone rather than give Massey great field position.

Other than Joey Cory picking off Gauthier on a pass to end the third quarter, the game felt like it was slowly slipping away from Crocus until the final four, wild minutes of the game.

With under half of the fourth quarter remaining, Crocus got the ball and went down the field.

With 5:40 remaining, Maurice Chartrand made a big catch to keep the drive going, and ultimately, Pashe-Anderson caught Crocus’s first touchdown of the game to snatch a 10-9 lead.

“I felt excitement; I felt relief,” said Pashe-Anderson about the touchdown. “I felt like I proved what I need to … Like what I’ve been working for.”

The Vikings were clearly panicking as their next drive went nowhere. Gauthier nearly turned the ball over again on a run that was stuffed with 1:55 remaining.

Crocus widened its lead with a field goal, making the score 13-9 with 1:12 remaining in the game, and it seemed like the Plainsmen had the victory.

That would have been wild enough, but Massey had one more drive left, and it made it count.

Gauthier ran the ball into Plainsmen territory early in the drive, and all of a sudden the tone around the field changed. Frantic excitement started to build on the Vikings’ side while there was a quiet intensity emanating from the Plainsmen.

The Vikings missed their next two passes, and the game was slipping out of reach. However, with 27 seconds left, Gauthier threw the ball down the middle, finding Haiden Samuels to keep the drive going.

“(I thought) ‘Frick it. Haiden’s down there somewhere,’ and I looked off, the safety bit and I knew I could fit that ball on a rope, and Haiden’s just better at football than everyone around, so he’d come down with that ball,” said Gauthier. “What a play by him.”

On the next play, the Plainsmen were flagged and just like that the Vikings had one yard to gain and three downs to do it in.

Gauthier took the ball himself, jumping through the defensive line and scoring to cement the victory for the home team with just 0:11 remaining in the game.

“It was pretty surreal,” said Gauthier, adding that this was the most fun game he’s ever played in. “We had a different play called … but I saw the B-gap wide open and I knew my line could push … I knew wherever I went I was going to score because my O-line knew the assignment and we got in there.”

Time wound down on the kickoff, and the Vikings snatched an improbable victory from the jaws of defeat thanks to a few spectacular plays on both sides of the ball.

“I can’t be upset about how our team played,” said Kaluzniak after the game. “I thought we played really, really well in all phases of the game and unfortunately got our hearts broken at the end. That’s life; that’s football.”

With the victory, the Vikings improved to 3-2 on the season while the Plainsmen are still looking for their first victory.

Next week, Crocus Plains hosts Oak Park on Oct. 15 in what will be another difficult game for the Plainsmen, while the Vikings host the Elmwood Giants on Oct. 16.

This year, bragging rights and a victory in the Brandon Bowl go to the Vincent Massey; however, Crocus Plains feels it is moving in the right direction.

“To have the lead in the dying seconds, it just shows, we talk about it all the time: process over results, and we’re coming,” said Kaluzniak. “It’s proof that what our coaches are doing is working, and what our players are doing is working.”

» rmccarthy@brandonsun.com