Maples wins street fight

It was affectionately dubbed "The Jefferson Bowl" but pride was the only thing at stake and there was plenty of it pumping through the air at Maples Collegiate on Thursday.

 

As the sun began to go down on a chilly 16 C evening, it was the Maples Marauders falling to the field in a joyful, black-jerseyed pile as the host team defeated the Garden City Fighting Gophers 21-14 before a crowd of about 300.

Maples, located just a few kilometres down Jefferson Avenue from Garden City, battled back from a 14-0 second-quarter deficit in the Winnipeg High School Football League's Vidruk AA Division game.

"Most important game, it just feels great to be on top of the rivalry," said Maples' running back Anthony Kanakis, a Grade 12 player who scored the winning touchdown on a 72-yard run in the fourth quarter when his team was trailing 14-13. Grade 12 receiver Jamie Turek put the exclamation point on the victory by scoring a two-point convert.

"I think we were in it the whole game, we just pulled it out in the end. We worked harder and fought hard," Kanakis said.

The Marauders' rally began midway through the second quarter and resulted in the Maples squad scoring 21 unanswered points.

"We came out strong. We had talked about focusing because there's a lot of people here, a lot of friends, a lot of family, teachers and administrators so we knew it was going to be a bit of a different atmosphere," said Garden City head coach Beau Wilks, who formerly played for Maples.

"We talked about keeping our composure to start, and we certainly had it. We battled a bit in the middle part of the game and had a good push at the end, but it wasn't quite enough and the better team won today. They had a couple of well-executed big plays, their running back (Kanakis) had a big game and so did Jamie Turek. They made the big plays when they had to."

The Gophers had some big plays of their own to jump out to the early 14-0 lead. Huge ground gains by running back Xavier Prime set up running back Zach Chioua's two-yard touchdown for a 7-0 first-quarter lead.

Early in the second quarter, Fighting Gophers' Grade 10 quarterback Justin Kasper pounded the ball in himself on a one-yard plunge to make it a 14-0 lead.

Maples responded with a 20-yard field goal by Andrew Carvalho to get on the board. Things got interesting with about 30 seconds left in the first half when Turek caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Logan Evans to make it 14-10.

In the third quarter with about two minutes left, Carvalho kicked a 30-yard field goal and the Marauders were trailing 14-13 heading into the fourth quarter.

"It means a lot to our guys to win this game because a lot of them have friends over there (on the Gophers). So it was a big game, I'm glad they won," said Maples coach Peter Serette. The Marauders alternated Evans and Chris Benevides at quarterback during the game to give some different looks to Garden City's defence.

"That two-point convert was a big play for Turek. He was having cramps all game and he actually cramped up as he reached the goal line," Serette said. "But it says a lot about our character that we were able to win this."

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca