Fantastic finish pulls St. Peter to 5th football title in a row

By Dan Plouffe, published in EMC

The aura of invincibility surrounding the St. Peter Knights senior football team grew to an even greater unprecedented level as they captured the national capital high school championship at the Nepean Sportsplex’s Minto Field.

Winning a fifth consecutive title certainly contributes to a big part of the mystique, but it’s hard to imagine the Knights ever facing another opponent in future years with as much explosive talent as the St. Francis-Xavier Coyotes, or a team that could corner St. Peter into such dire circumstances in the late stages of a championship game.

The Coyotes were the dominant team for the majority of the Saturday, Nov. 10 contest, building a comfortable lead thanks to a Tunde Adeleke touchdown rush, a safety, a single and a field goal. They’d completely stalled the Knights’ offensive attack all game en route to their 13-0 advantage well into the fourth quarter.

And once St. Peter finally was able to claw their way to a touchdown with 7:02 left to make a game of it, Nathaniel Hamlin erased all that effort in one play with a potentially demoralizing touchdown return on the ensuing kickoff.

But the Knights were not to be denied of what seems to be their annual destiny, as quarterback Jake Molinski twice marched them down the field in the final three minutes, converting several third-down plays before plunging in for the winning touchdown of the 21-20 contest with 6.8 seconds on the clock.

“They’re five-time defending champions – never underestimate the heart of a champion,” said St. Francis-Xavier coach Mark Jennings, whose team had many players lining up on both offence and defence. “I think they wore us down. They’re physically big and they’re big in numbers. We have guys going both ways, and you start running out of gas.”

Jennings emphasized that he was fiercely proud of his players’ efforts, stating that the most disappointing part of the loss was that he wouldn’t be getting together with them to watch game film the next Monday at lunch.

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“It’s the group of boys that came in in Grade 9 and now are turning into men – that’s why you coach,” adds Jennings, who started the Riverside South school’s football program four years ago with his current seniors. “I’m proud of them. It’s football and life. Sometimes that last five seconds is on your side and sometimes it’s not. I told them, ‘Learn from this through life.’

“In 20 years they’re going to look back on this and will have some laughs, but today it’s all the tears.”

On the other side of the ball, Molinski created a tale he’ll be able to tell his kids in 20 years from now with the miracle comeback escape he engineered. The Grade 12 quarterback carried a fire in his eye during the second half that said he simply wasn’t going to be denied.

“This could have been my last football game,” noted Molinski, who drew inspiration from his team’s defeat to the Coyotes in the junior final two years ago, not to mention a 34-22 regular-season loss. “Pretty much every time I strap the football pads on that’s a game I think of. You don’t forget that kind of stuff.”

Without two of his biggest weapons due to injury – runningback Rashari Henry and receiver Tyrone Pierre – Molinski threw pinpoint strikes to his receivers when it mattered most on late, long drives. And when no one was open, he showed that his pocket passing ability wasn’t the only tool he’s got, pulling the ball down on countless occasions and attacking defenders like a runningback.

“Everybody sees him as this big guy, but he’s a good athlete,” highlights St. Peter coach Jim Mick. “He’s a big load and he’s a competitor and he doesn’t like losing. We put the ball in his hands and either he’s passing or he’s running. Sometimes you gotta go to battle with a guy like that.”

Molinski scored two rushing touchdowns, while Rouben Charles caught the other. A former Sir Robert Borden student who moved in with his uncle in Orleans so he could play high school football alongside his cousin at St. Peter, Charles also hauled in a long pass on the winning drive before falling to the ground in pain for the third time in the final quarter.

“This is the hardest team we ever played. I was scared. I didn’t want to lose,” Charles said, explaining that he first hurt his knee making a spin move. “We had to put everything on the line. In that moment, I just thought of the team and I thought, ‘we’re in the fourth quarter, so I’m not going to let my team down. I can brush it off.’”

The Knights now move to face Frontenac Secondary School of Kingston in the OFSAA National Capital Bowl semi-final game, but they won’t soon forget the fantastic finish to the fifth-straight championship in a series that shows no signs of coming to an end any time soon.

“When you’re down two touchdowns with a couple minutes left, it’s crazy to think we won the game,” Molinski added. “Can’t say I’ve been there before, but there’s no greater feeling than when you take the lead with six seconds left in the championship.”