It isn’t all that often that a punter plays a deciding role in the outcome of a South Sask 5A 12-Aside Football League game, but Saturday afternoon at Gutheridge Field was one of those cases.
Minutes after scoring the game-tying touchdown early in the fourth quarter, Josh Johnson would send a 40-yard punt through the end zone for a single point and the Peacock Tornadoes would eventually go on to an 18-14 win over the Swift Current Colts at Gutheridge Field.
The win was crucial for the Tornadoes in that it gave them a 2-3 record and fourth place in the six-team league, setting up a semifinal showdown with the Weyburn Eagles next week.
Swift Current will face the Estevan Elecs -- who fell 48-0 to Central in the second game at Gutheridge -- in the consolation playoff game.
“It was good, we played really hard as a team and everyone was communicating really well. Our defence held them to 14 points, which is awesome, you love to see that,” said Tornadoes quarterback Owen Varjassy, who had close to 200 yards rushing on the day. “Then our offence got it done with some big runs by Josh Johnson and our o-line was blocking and the receivers were doing a great job blocking downfield, it was a good win.”
Varjassy’s success moving the ball on the ground came to a head early in the second quarter, as he’d crack off a 75-yard touchdown run to tie the game 7-7. Things kept going from there, as Varjassy and Johnson proved to be tough for the Colts to handle all game.
“Early in the season when you transition your starting running back into your starting quarterback, you hope the guy can carry the load and he does,” Tornadoes head coach Bert Redstone said of Varjassy, “He’s calm under fire and he’s learned a lot, Sawyer Buettner has come over this year and helped walk him through a few things and give him some tutorials and stuff and he’s really come along.”
Swift Current’s Owen Sletten opened scoring on a five-yard touchdown pass in the final minute of the first quarter, and there things would remain until the final 12 minutes.
A 25-yard touchdown pass to Kaleb Snyder on the first play of the fourth quarter would give Swift Current back the lead, but the very next series would see the Toilers march the ball down the field and finish things off on a three-yard run by Johnson.
Johnson’s punt single came with 7:30 to play in the game and a safety forced by another long punt would make it a three-point game with 3:41 to play. Another rouge with 10 seconds remaining wrapped up scoring.
Redstone couldn’t say enough about the performance of his standout senior.
“He’s bailed us out how many times over the last three years, and he comes in and puts it way in the back of the end zone, unreturnable, for that single. Just a great play,” he said. “You can’t understate these things… players have to step up and play, we put gameplans in place and they have to execute and they did a great job.”
The Tornadoes coach went on to point out how many players contributed to the win and any success the team has had this season
“You can’t say much more about players that step up and play, all these guys like Brady Ross, Owen, Josh and someone like Ryan Duncan who doesn’t get a lot of credit playing o-line and d-line and specials, Malcolm Hunter covering punts,” he said. “Guys might not get mentioned, but they play so well and make our lives easier as coaches.”
With the win, the Tornadoes will now face unbeaten Eagles in Weyburn in the league semifinal next week, thanks to Weyburn clinching first place with a 38-14 win over Yorkton.
The other semifinal will feature the Central Cyclones hosting Yorkton after the Cyclones got the job done with their commanding win over Estevan.
Javin Boynton had a pair of first-quarter touchdowns before majors from Donovan Harness, Griffin Andrews and Mason Payne made it 34-0 at half.
Keaton Belsher made it 41-0 with the lone major of the third quarter and Jaxson Bowerin would finish things off with a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Central will host Yorkton at Gutheridge Field on Saturday, with game time at 1 p.m.
