Plainsmen finish season 0-7

The final game of the regular season was bittersweet for the Grade 12s on the Crocus Plains football team as the team lost 42-10 to Murdoch MacKay on senior night.

“Definitely not the way we wanted it to go, but I think what we were able to accomplish as a team and as a group is something we weren’t able to do in the past couple of years, and I’m very proud of that,” said Grade 12 offensive guard Kolby McKay

The Plainsmen (0-6) had no hope of making the playoffs going into the game, but the team would have liked some momentum heading into the consolation bracket.

From the opening kickoff, the offence struggled to find a rhythm. Untimely penalties consistently slowed down drives and made it difficult to get into a rhythm.

Their opening drive stalled out due to a holding penalty that forced Crocus into a third-and-long scenario, where they were forced to punt.

Murdoch MacKay running back Mishael Onafowora snuck through the offensive line on their very first snap and took the ball 40 yards to the house, giving his team a 7-0 lead with 8:02 remaining in the first half.

The speedy running back was all over the field in the first half. He gouged the Plainsmen on the ground for big yardage on offence, and picked off Jake Cory on Crocus’ second drive of the game when the Plainsmen were threatening to score with 3:21 remaining in the half.

If he hadn’t stepped out of bounds while blazing down the sideline, Onafowora would have gone the length of the field for a defensive score.

The second quarter is when Murdoch MacKay did real damage.

Onafowora scored another rushing touchdown to start the quarter, making it 14-0 for the visiting team. From here, what had been a heavy ground attack morphed into an air raid.

Star quarterback Jack Jaworski — who is committed to the University of Manitoba — decided he wanted in on the action, throwing a beautiful arcing pass to Jayden Klimack for a touchdown with 4:16 remaining in the half.

Crocus fumbled the ball on the first snap of the following possession, putting Jaworski back in the driver’s seat with a short field in front of him.

He made the Plainsmen pay, throwing a touchdown to Hayden Janzen with 3:15 remaining in the half. All of a sudden, the visiting team was up 27-0 after missing the attempted two-point conversion.

However, multiple penalties on the touchdown brought the kickoff way up field which forced Ethan Swiscoski to kneel in the end zone and surrender a rouge, making it 28-0.

Before the end of the half, Cory threw his second interception of the game and Grade 12 safety Will Cantelo fumbled the ball, creating two more turnovers, though the Crocus Plains defence managed to hold off the furious Murdoch MacKay attack.

“Some of our guys got it into their head that (Murdoch MacKay) was an Oak Park-calibre team, and we kind of let ourselves get a bit sloppy,” said head coach Mason Kaluzniak. “A couple fumbles and interceptions early hurt us, but defensively we were right there with them.”

Things improved drastically in the second half for Crocus Plains. The offence managed to find a bit more success using predominantly throws to the flats.

“Both Maurice Chartrand and Bradley Pashe-Anderson are such good playmakers when they have the ball in their hands,” said Kaluzniak. “Sometimes we have to make an effort just to get it to them and that’s what (offensive co-ordinator Bryce Keilback) was thinking there.”

The Crocus Plains defence stepped up in the second half, forcing repeated three-and-outs, though the offensive struggles continued.

“Second half, we showed what Crocus football is all about,” said Cantelo, who played both sides of the ball throughout the game.

“I think the first half wasn’t really us.”

Despite the improvement, Jaworski found Xander Lamoureux twice in the second half for scores. The first came at the start of the fourth quarter, extending the lead to 35-0.

Crocus’ defence did managed to force Murdoch MacKay to take a knee in their own end zone rather than punt with midway through the half, giving the Plainsmen their first points of the afternoon with 3:25 remaining in the third quarter and making the score 35-2.

Cory threw his third and final interception of the game with 4:30 remaining in the third quarter and Cantelo was picked off on a sweep with 5:33 remaining in the game.

Crocus’ only score of the game came after Pashe-Anderson scampered down the field before getting hauled down at the 1-yard line. Grade 12 running back Easton Durgan punched his way into the end zone for the first touchdown of his career.

“It’s just so bittersweet,” said Durgan. “The boys have been working all year. We’re short numbers, and just to get that one felt so unreal.”

Cantelo scored a two-point conversion after the touchdown on an end around to to make the score 35-10.

“It meant a little something,” said Cantelo about scoring the two-point conversion. “I had the pass option and decided not to take it because, well, the last one was an interception. It kind of upped my game a bit.”

Lamoureux scored his second touchdown of the half on the final play making the final score 42-10 after Ryder Marley kicked the extra point.

Cantelo, McKay and Durgan will all graduate after this season.

McKay will go from playing against Jaworski to blocking for him as he’s also committed to the University of Manitoba.

“I played with (Jaworski) during (Team) ‘Toba and just seeing him sling the rock is like, ‘Oh my God,’” said McKay about his future quarterback.

Cantelo is taking a much more laid-back approach to what comes next, while Durgan hopes to continue to pursue football and see where it takes him.

“Right now, I’m mainly just thinking one day at a time. The same thing I do on the field,” said Cantelo.

Murdoch MacKay will be back in Brandon next week for a playoff matchup against the Vincent Massey Vikings. It’s something they are already preparing for.

“We (weren’t) worried about the score in this game; we were worried about executing and doing those little things right,” said Murdoch MacKay head coach Darin Demchuk. “If we’re not perfect next week, it’s going to be tough for us.”

The majority of the Vincent Massey Vikings varsity football team attended the game between Crocus and Murdoch MacKay. They spent the afternoon sizing up their first-round opponent.

One of the biggest questions about the game will be whether a high-powered Vikings’ defence or Jaworski and the efficient Murdoch MacKay offence will come out on top.

“They’re going to do whatever they can to get in our quarterback’s head and stop the run game,” said Demchuk. “We gotta be ready to win the run battle and the pass battle too. We can’t rely on one thing or the other.”

While Crocus Plains will not take part in the playoffs, they will take part in the consolation postseason, in which they will face the Elmwood Giants on the road next week.

A win would put them in contention to finish ninth, assuming they come out as the victor against the winner of the game between Steinbach and Sturgeon Heights.

“(A record of) 0-7 is a tough finish, but blank this out and move on to next week,” said Durgan about facing Elmwood. “We have playoffs, and there isn’t a game we can’t win in playoffs.

» rmccarthy@brandonsun.com