By: Mike Still (@mikestill94)
The St. Vital Mustangs got an excellent performance from their defence and made key plays offensively at the right time en route to a 27-8 win over the Westman Wolverines in their home opener on Saturday afternoon.
An incredibly strong wind played a factor in the contest, with both sides struggling to move the ball through the air in the first half. The score was 11-0 for St. Vital thanks in part to three field goals from Tyler Pankiw, as well as stout play defensively that led to a Westman safety.
The biggest play of the first half came courtesy of Mustangs receiver Jude Tanghe, who made a contested grab in traffic that led to three points.
St. Vital and veteran quarterback Lucas Johnston got things moving in the third quarter, with the #cutestshowonturf founder locating his favourite target from week one, Stanton Rempel for a long touchdown as the hosts increased their lead to 20-0 entering the final frame.
But Westman didn’t go down easily. Liam Doherty recovered a fumble deep in St. Vital territory and the visitors were able to capitalize quickly, with Ryan Vandeponseele snagging a touchdown grab. Burke Erickson then hauled in the two point convert attempt to make the score 20-8.
But St. Vital took the momentum right back on the ensuing kickoff with five minutes to play, getting a long return that was finished off by running back Jeremy Gillis with 4:19 to play.
Westman’s defence got another turnover late and were threatening in the red zone once again, however the Mustangs stood strong, including player of the game Andrew Nolan.
“Coming into this week, [Westman] changed it up a lot on us from what we saw on film,” Nolan said.
“We thought they’d be going in shotgun split but they came under centre with the two backs and quick draws. We adjusted and brought the tackles inside to pinch them down and tried to bottleneck the inside and make them go to the outside, because we figured we were solid enough to hold them there.”
With the win, St. Vital advances to 1-1 as they head into their first bye of the season, while Westman falls to 0-2. There is only one game of action this week with the 1-0 East Side Eagles hosting the 1-0 St. James Rods at 8 pm at Eagles field.