Buckeyes CTV Bowl champs
Miles Mac brings home first football banner since 2005
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This article was published 22/11/2019 (2215 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Buckeyes are football champions again.
On Nov. 16, the Miles Macdonell Buckeyes varsity football team beat the Portage Collegiate Trojans 28-6 to win the CTV Bowl Division 2 championship at Investors Group Field.
“It was great,” said head coach Dan Washnuk. “The biggest thing was the kids trusted in each other and trusted what we were doing. They knew what the game plan was and they were ready for it.”
“It was unbelievable,” Matthew Graham, the Buckeyes Grade 11 starting quarterback, told The Herald. “It didn’t really seem real at first.”
The championship marks the first time Miles Mac has brought home a football banner since the Buckeyes won the CTV Bowl back in 2005. In 2011 Miles Mac made the AA finals, then reached the AAA finals in 2012. This year’s showdown was a best vs. best matchup. Up until the final, Portage was undefeated all season, while Miles Mac’s sole loss of the season was a 23-21 loss to Portage on Sept. 19.
“It was something we expected, we expected to be in the final because that was the expectation we set for our group,” Washnuk admitted. “There were a lot of solid teams this year in AA, but it kind of always felt like it was going to be us and Portage.”
Portage struck first, recording a touchdown early in the game. However, the Buckeyes were able to buckle down and stop the Trojans in their tracks.
“We were trying to go athlete on athlete, and play the game we knew we could,” Washnuk said. “We held on and you could slowly see the momentum shift.”
“Some of my reads weren’t really clicking in the first half,” admitted Graham, who threw three touchdown passes in the championship final and was named the game’s most valuable offensive player. “But after that touch down, we blocked the convert and got the momentum back. At the half, coach talked to us and our minds just clicked.”
In the third quarter, Miles Mac scored a touchdown and converted for the extra point, gaining the lead, which they would hold through the third and add to in the final quarter.
“We were feeling confident,” Washnuk said. “They had us in the first half there, but we just kind of outlasted them. The momentum continued to swing.”
The Buckeyes success’ this season is all the more impressive considering the Buckeyes won a total of two games during the 2017 and 2018 season. Both wins came at the tail end of 2018.
“It was an incredible team effort,” Washnuk said. “We rotated our defensive line as much as we could, and we did that all year. Half the year our starters didn’t play in the second half. We were able to shut teams down early and get our twos and threes in. We were never worried about anyone having to fit in all year.”
“We knew we had a chance, it was just a matter of putting in the work,” Graham said. “The last two seasons we were developing, and we knew that. It’s nice that the hard work paid off.”
The core of the Buckeyes team will be back again next year. Washnuk said the goal has been for the team to move up to compete in the top high school division for 2020.
“I told the kids after they’d won the championship and they deserved a rest,” Washnuk recalled. “That rest was the bus ride back to the school after the game. Then we hit the gym.”
For the Buckeyes to compete in the top tier, Washnuk said it will require the whole squad buying into a disciplined work ethic.
“We’re going to out work the other teams,” he said. “It’s not enough to show up as returning champs, we need to put the effort in.”
“Knowing everyone’s committed, we know what we can do,” Graham added. “It’s just a matter of putting in the work and showing what we can do.”
Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist
Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist
Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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