Vikings dominate in hall of fame game

The Vincent Massey Vikings football team brought past and present together for their Hall of Fame game against Sturgeon Heights on Friday.

On the field, the current Vikings did their alumni proud, defeating the Sturgeon Heights Huskies 42-10.

Off the field, at halftime, running back Mitchell Ficek — who played for the team during the 2000-01 season — was inducted into the Vincent Massey Hall of Fame. During his playing career, Ficek received the Award of Merit from Order of Sports Excellence 2001 as well as the award for Most Outstanding Player-Offence that same year.

The school also inducted the 2015 Vikings football team that won a Winnipeg High School Football Championship by winning the Currie Division.

The opening moments of the game certainly didn’t hint at what lay ahead.

The Huskies opened the game with an onside kick that took the Vikings sideline by surprise. Though Massey’s Leigton Lefebvre managed to corral the ball, he decided to turn up field and attempt to gain yardage.

As head coach Mike Steeves screamed for his receiver to go down, the Huskies special-teams unit closed in and punched the ball free before recovering the fumble.

With a roar, the Huskies offence took the field. They looked clinical, moving the ball efficiently down the field in just over four minutes before sealing the drive with a rushing touchdown by quarterback Brandon Holyk on a run-pass-option with 7:59 remaining in the opening quarter.

“All week we talked about starting strong and starting fast, and it was basically the exact opposite,” said Steeves with a chuckle.

Down seven to start the game, the Vikings offence hit the field after a delayed start. Ethan Smith immediately took the ball 40 yards on a long run that put Vincent Massey in scoring position.

A few plays later, Vikings quarterback Charlie Gauthier channelled his inner Le’veon Bell, picking his way through the line to score a rushing touchdown of his own in a statement that screamed “Anything you can do, I can do better.”

Kicker Timi Fadare blasted the kickoff through the end zone to increase the Vikings lead to 8-7 with 6:24 remaining in the first quarter. The duo of Langston Lucas and Fadare have become an underrated weapon for the Vikings with the booming kicks they deliver.

“When you’re pushing them 45 yards back on a punt and we’re tackling, it’s such an advantage,” said Steeves. “It’s an underrated skill and when you have two great kickers, it’s a lot of fun.”

It looked like the crowd was in for a classic shootout between the two groups. However, on the next play, the Vikings defence forced a fumble, which Amadeus Crossman recovered to put his team right back on offence.

With a short field in front of them, Gauthier found Lefebvre for a nice over-the-shoulder catch to give the Vikings a 15-7 lead with 3:11 remaining in the opening quarter.

The thunderous silence on the Huskies side spoke volumes.

The rest of the opening half was much the same, the Vikings defence was in prime form and didn’t allow another point for the rest of the half. Perhaps the highlight of the game was a pair of goal-line stops with 37 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

“The defence responded and the offence said ‘Thank you for the opportunity,’ and 109 yards later we were in the end zone,” said Steeves. “(It’s) probably one of my favourite drives of my career. We had some adversity, we dealt with it and then we thrived from it.”

Smith scored the touchdown on a short-yardage run that extended the lead to 22-7 with 6:06 remaining in the second quarter.

“We were on the one-yard line, probably could have given the ball to anyone and they would have scored,” said Smith. “I’m just happy to help in any way I can.”

The combination of Smith and Daxton Brock ran roughshod over the Huskies defence. The pair have very different running styles: Smith is more of a shifty runner while Brock hammers his was through the line.

Smith likened the pair to the duo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery who went by the nicknames of Sonic and Knuckles while playing for the Detroit Lions.

“That duo isn’t in the NFL anymore, so we will bring it here,” said Smith while grinning. “Teams having to watch both of us, it opens up the run game for both of us. He’s an awesome dude. I love having him in the backfield with me; it’s a lot of fun.”

If the first half started on a sour note for the Vikings, the second half went exactly as they would have liked. Crossman picked off Holyk on a play where he came back to the ball and made a turning catch, creating his second turnover of the game while simultaneously sucking the wind out of the Huskies sails once again.

A minute-and-a-half later, Gauthier found Haiden Samuels wide open in the middle of the field for a 35-yard touchdown, making the lead 29-7 with 9:37 remaining in the third quarter.

The rest of the third quarter was largely uneventful except for a pair of field goals by Vincent Massey kickers Fadare and Langston. Fadare put one between the uprights with 4:10 remaining in the third quarter making the score 32-7 while Langston made his kick at 1:37 to take a 35-7 lead.

The mood on the Vikings sideline was high going into the fourth quarter as they continued to dominate on both sides of the ball. Defensively there were several strong stops while the offence had free reign.

Smith punched home his second touchdown of the game on a short pass with 7:55 remaining in the game to take a 42-7 lead. He finished the day with seven rushes for 50 yards and a touchdown as well as two catches for 34 yards and a touchdown.

Gauthier also had a fantastic day going 11-for-18 through the air for 179 yards and three touchdowns as well as rushing six times for 85 yards and a touchdown.

Before the end of the game, Sturgeon Heights made a field goal of their own making the final score 42-10 in favour of the Vikings.

“Once we got a rhythm … we really started to push them around offensively, and later we did defensively,” said Steeves of the complete game played by his team.

With the win, the Vikings improved to 2-2 with a matchup next Thursday against hometown rival Crocus Plains.

“We try and win every game we can; we don’t focus on the current record,” said Smith. “We try our best to win every game and see where the season takes us.

“This was a warmup game for us and Crocus. We’re going to come to practise, get ready and hopefully win.”

CROCUS FALLS

Across town on the Neelin football field, it was a difficult afternoon for the Plainsmen.

At halftime, the score was 39-0 in favour of the Lancers who consistently kept the ball in the Plainsmen’s half of the field throughout the contest.

Dakota is known as a dominant team in the Winnipeg High School Football League. The perennial contenders are always a tough contest for Brandon-based teams.

The final score was 50-0 for Dakota.

» rmccarthy@brandonsun.com