Muskies suffer road setback

A week after beating the Dryden Eagles in their first road game of the WHSFL season, the Muskie football team was looking to continue the momentum last Friday afternoon on its first trip into Winnipeg.
Instead, the black-and-gold found themselves on the losing end of a 20-7 score to the Daniel McIntyre Maroons, which dropped their record to 1-2 in the Andy Currie ‘A’ Division standings.

“It was kind of disappointing as I felt that this was a winnable game for us as we were heading down there,” admitted Muskie head coach Chad Canfield.
“A win would of have put us in good shape in the standings with some really challenging opponents coming up, but we really couldn’t get anything going offensively,” he noted.
“They [Daniel McIntyre] game-planned us very well, and their coaches deserve a lot of credit for that in shutting us down.”
After scoring just a single point on a missed field goal early in the second quarter to trail 14-1 at halftime, the Muskies got within striking distance when running back Cam Gobeil got into the end zone in the third quarter.
But that was as close as the black-and-gold would get.
“They really stopped our outside running game and we couldn’t get anything going on the inside, but we drove down the field and finally got the ball in there,” Canfield recalled.
“Our passing game wasn’t that bad and we made some plays downfield, but we just couldn’t get enough going and we had to punt the ball away,” he added.
“Our defence, though, played great once again as they only gave up a couple of scores and had a couple of great goal-line stops, which is putting them among one of the top units in the entire league,” Canfield lauded.
After hosting the Tec Voc Hornets (1-1) yesterday afternoon, the Muskies now will enjoy a little over a week off before they return to the gridiron for the annual Homecoming game, which will take place next Friday (Oct. 5) at 1 p.m. against the Neelin Spartans.
“We’re pretty healthy overall right now, but having two games back-to-back in such a short amount of time will be tough on the body for the guys,” noted Canfield.
“So the break between games will be good to help heal any bumps and bruises,” he reasoned.
“We are going to be taking a long hard look at Neelin through game tape and find some holes,” Canfield continued.
“The only team that has been able to score any points on them has been Steinbach, who have also been dominant so far and the team that we will playing after Neelin,” he said.
In addition to the fact that one of the top teams in the league will be coming to town next week, the added atmosphere stemming from Homecoming festivities will make the game against the Spartans an exciting affair.
“The guys will be jacked up to play, which is what we are going to need against Neelin,” Canfield stressed.
“And as a coaching staff, we need to be putting together a good game plan.
“We will also be looking to make some changes as far as starters go and move people around a little bit to try and get the most we can out of our offence,” he added.
“The defence has been playing great up to this point, and now we need to pay them back by getting some points on the board.”