Flyers outlast Redcoats
Sam Miele had one good play in him Thursday and that was enough to get the job done.
The Eden Flyers quarterback had an off game by his standards but did manage to hook up with Wes Wiens on a 40-yard strike for the lone touchdown of the game as the Flyers defeated the Governor Simcoe Redcoats 9-1 in a Niagara Region High School Athletic Association senior football game at Simcoe.
“I think six of my buddies from university and college drove about three hours to watch the game so I was happy they could at least see one nice throw,” said Miele, an 18-year-old, Grade 12B student. “Wes did a phenomenal job. I told him before the game if the guy is right on top, give a little shimmy to the left, because he’s on the outside. He gave a little shimmy, broke to the left and broke wide open. I had the right protection and just made the throw.”
That was it for majors as both teams had all kinds of trouble on offence, both running and throwing the ball. Toss is an inordinate number of penalties and numerous turnovers, and this one was ugly from an offensive perspective.
Miele, who Eden coach Jeff Webster praised for having a good season, was the first to admit he had a poor game — he was intercepted five times, all by Simcoe safety Matteo Martin.
“We had a great practice this week, everybody was focused,” Miele said. “The O-line was focused, the receivers were focused, so this is definitely on me.
“All those picks (interceptions), that’s on me big time. I just threw it right to the safety and didn’t make the right read.”
Miele said the Redcoats didn’t make his job easy.
“The O-line had the blocks,” he said. “I have to bring kudos. They brought the blitz and I just didn’t read it right.”
Webster tipped his cap to his charges who found a way to win on a day where they did not execute with any degree of consistency.
“They did a very good job collectively as a team of maintaining focus when things got tough and keeping everything in check in terms of keeping their composure and maintaining fundamentally sound football,” Webster said.
Webster was surprised to see his offence have so many problems.
“Honestly, this was really the first time we have really struggled with that this year,” he said. “We had a previous four games of moving the football and I’ve always been very happy with it. Today, they did a very good job of containing us and our outside runs and giving us some pressure up the middle.
“We just were not clicking in terms of getting the balls to the receivers on time. Our timing was not good, and we’re gonna have to work on that at lot over the next couple of days.”
Miele feels the Flyers can make some noise come playoff time.
“I got the best receivers out there, better than any other team in this division, and whatever playoff team we go and play, I know we’re gonna win and I know we’re gonna play our hearts out.”
Simcoe coach Jamie Brophy gave props to Eden’s defence.
“They did a really good job of holding the edges on us and we just couldn’t create a lot on the ground, and then our passing game, we just we just dropped too many balls,” he said.
Brophy did see some cause for optimism on the other side of the ball.
“We gave up one big play,” he said. “Our defence played really well. The problem was that our lead corner(back) came out on that play and we had to put somebody in and they threw it that way and it was a big play.
“We had some really positive things from different players, like Matteo Martin with five picks.”
The win was the fourth straight victory for the Flyers who improved to 4-1.
The Redcoats finished the regular season 2-3.
The top four teams in the league will meet in the Tier 1 finals. The fifth-and sixth-place teams will get bye into the Tier 2 semifinals and teams six through 10 will meet in the Tier 2 quarter-finals.
STATS PACK
Flyers 9 Redcoats 1
BPSN Player of the Game: Governor Simcoe safety Matteo Martin with five interceptions, three in the first half and two more in the second.
For the Eden Flyers: Wes Wiens 40-yard touchdown catch from Sam Miele with convert from Braden Vanslageren; Other two points scored on a safety; Interceptions from Robbie Lane and Preston Smith.
For the Governor Simcoe Redcoats: Single from quarterback Danny Lewis on a punt through the end zone.
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