The St. Joan of Arc (JOA) Knights are chock-full of older, more experienced players who have been around the high school football block for a few years.
But on Thursday afternoon, on their home field, they got key contributions from younger players to beat the St. Joseph's Jaguars, 35-10, in senior boys Catholic School Athletics of Simcoe County (CSASC) action.
JOA defensive back Lukas Charbonneau, who just turned 16, had two interceptions — one in each half — to stunt the Jaguars' offence both times as it was starting to move the ball.
Mammoth offensive lineman Mikael Usiohen, who stands six-foot-two and weighs 300 pounds a week shy of his 16th birthday, was a dominating force at the point of attack as the Knights shook off a pesky challenge from the Jags.
The win moves the Knights to 3-0 at the halfway mark of their regular schedule. The Jaguars, who were a bit hard done by after a curious call or two from the officiating crew, served notice that they could be the Knights' top CSASC challenger when playoffs start later this month.
“A much closer game, they were a tough opponent,” said Charbonneau, who also had two interceptions last week in the Knights' 55-0 romp over St. Peter’s.
Both Charbonneau and Usiohen were as jacked as you would expect Grade 11 students to be after getting their star turns on a team that has roughly a dozen players two years older.
“It was just a reaction thing to the ball,” Charbonneau told BarrieToday after the game. “I played deep on the second one. I got switched (from cornerback) to halfback because of an injury to my teammate Emry (Ibeabuchi), so a shout-out to him as well.”
He plies his trade in the trenches, but it was impossible to miss Usiohen, especially when he powered over to lead the way on the game’s final touchdown, which was scored by Will Brown.
“I managed to make a nice block, a pancake,” explained Usiohen, who was born in Nigeria but came to Canada as a three-year-old. “But for us, the O-line is a team thing; if one of us succeeds, we all succeed. I was just happy for our (entire) offence and our entire team.”
Another younger player had a direct impact when reserve running back Mike Wallin rumbled in from about 25 yards out to score. Wallin, younger brother of Knights middle linebacker Noah Woods-Wallin, took a hand-off and made a few Jaguar defenders miss on the short side of the field to score right in front of his father, Darryl, who is a coach for the Huronia Stallions Football Club and was on the sidelines taping the action.
The extra point on Wallin’s score was made by kicker/running back Konrad Cieplicki and made the score 28-2. Cieplicki also scored two touchdowns, one in each half, had four other extra points and launched several booming punts that forced St. Joe’s to march a long way if they hoped to score.
Thiago Mafra returned an interception for a touchdown and Brown scored the game’s last major in the dying minutes to account for the Knights' other points.
Knights star receiver Judah Davis had a quiet day, turning the ball over on a fumbled kick, but he later showed his class when he made a first-down reception and let the Jaguars beat themselves by taking an unnecessary roughness penalty.
That play, and the extra yards tacked on by the penalty, set up Cieplicki’s second touchdown rumble off a direct snap. Cieplicki already ran one in on a beautiful misdirection screenplay that opened the scoring in the first quarter.
The Knights were fortunate to have the opportunity to score their final touchdown as it appeared as though the Jaguars had recovered their own punt from an on-side position, but instead were flagged for a no-yards infraction. The resulting short field and a dicey high-tackle call led to Brown’s short plunge over the goal line.
The Jaguars got a consolation score by Liam Walton, a touchdown set up on a mad dash of about 70 yards by Logan Forsyth. It was one of a few big plays by Forsyth, who was a handful all afternoon.
The margins were fine for Forsyth’s team. The underdogs had their moments on both sides of the ball, moving downfield on offence and limiting the Knights skill position players on defence, only to be undone by their own miscues.
You could sense how a bit more seasoning and experience – which the Knights have in spades – could have produced a much different final scoreline.
Which makes the play by a group of players – Charbonneau, Usiohen and Wallin – more impressive for the Knights.
Long the dominant program in the CSASC, head coach Chris Forde and his coaching staff do well to get reps for their younger players.
To Usiohen, age is just a number and he’s happy to do his part.
“All I want to do is (complete) my assignment,” he said. “I just do what I got to do.”
It was a sentiment echoed by Charbonneau.
“We just show up and get in as many reps and practice as we can,” he said, "and (winning) is what happens when you put in that kind of effort.”
