Play by Winnipeg junior varsity football team goes viral

A trick punt during a Winnipeg junior varsity football semifinal game last month has been getting a lot of attention on YouTube.

The play happened Oct. 30 in a game between Kelvin High School's Clippers and the Vincent Massey Collegiate Trojans, who were undefeated.

The Clippers lost the game 32-16, but coach Matthew Johnson said the Clippers are being praised for a trick move during the game.

The move is called a punt punt.

"I told the defense, 'If we stop them here, we'll run the punt punt,' and they lost it," said Johnson. "They got super excited and went out there and stopped the Trojans in their tracks, and we ran the punt punt and it was beautiful."

Johnson uploaded a video of the trick punt on the video-sharing website YouTube, where it has more than 240,000 hits.

Don't know what a punt punt is? Johnson describes it:

"We lined up for punt return as Vincent Massey was going to punt away possession of the ball to us. Usually you only have one or two punt returners, and the rest of your players are lined up at the line of scrimmage to block.

"But we lined up with six guys back. Two were designated catchers/punters and the rest would make sure they were behind the punter before he kicked it so that would be onside, meaning they are eligible to recover the punt. Usually, only the punter is eligible to recover his own punt because he is the only player behind the ball when it is kicked, hence onside.

"But we had five others, besides the punter who was behind the ball, and when he kicks the ball all five would sprint past all the Vincent Massey players who were running towards them in order to recover the punt."

The punt play was made by linebacker Patrick Dott.