Raiders overwhelm Trojans

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This article was published 29/09/2023 (1089 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A red-hot quarterback and a swarming defence were more than enough for the Oak Park Raiders on Friday.

Raiders standout quarterback Ryan Wirtzfeld tossed four touchdowns and rushed for another while the stout defence blanked the visiting Vincent Massey (Winnipeg) Trojans in a 40-0 triumph at Oak Park.

The Raiders improved to 3-1 at the midpoint in the Winnipeg High School Football League season to join the Vincent Massey (Brandon) Vikings in a tie for second place, behind St. Paul’s, in the AAAA southwest division. The Trojans fell to 2-2 and remained third in the southeast division.

“I feel like everybody did great today, said Wirtzfeld, 16. “We spread the ball around, I think six or seven different receivers caught a ball today. I threw a few up and almost every time the receivers came down with it.

“I feel like we can do even better. Great win today, we got the running backs in, we got everybody in. I feel like we can put up even more, I feel like we’re just starting to hit our stride.”

The Raiders’ relentless balanced attack tested the Trojans’ defence throughout, leading to touchdowns in every quarter. The hosts opened the scoring on the first series of the game when Wirtzfeld found receiver Jack McLean for a 31-yard major. McLean finished with four grabs and accounted for 101 of Wirtzfeld’s 265 passing yards on the day.

Wirtzfeld also found Tavin Parini (five yards), Nathan Esch (16 yards) and Marcus Zaluski (15 yards) in the end zone while hitting paydirt himself on an 18-yard rush in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, the Trojans’ run-heavy attack on offence was no match for the Raiders’ rock-solid defensive unit, which has allowed 32 points through four contests this season.

Matthew Gillespie, one of the province’s top high school prospects, was unblockable for much of this one, recording seven tackles — including one for a safety — one sack and a pass-breakup while adding 12 rushing yards on offence.

“It was a great performance,” said Raiders head coach Chris Ollson. “You could tell they were ready to go. They’ve been dialed in all day. Even at school, you could tell they were. We had a meeting at lunch, everybody was there, on time, all got their gear.

“They needed to be in the locker room at 3:45, everyone was just dialed in and then it came out here. In the first half, we had one penalty and we kept moving the ball. It got a little rough at times but we got the momentum and kept going.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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