Varsity Spears climb to 2-3
The Niagara Spears varsity (U18) football team improved to 2-3 in Ontario Summer Football League AAA action with a 32-10 victory over the Brampton Bulldogs last Saturday.
The Spears trailed 10-0 and 10-6 at the half before rallying for the victory.
“We played one of the worst halves of football this year: too many brain farts; too many dropped passes; and, we took too many penalties,” Spears head coach Brian Duguay said. “We were really lucky that it was only 10-6 for them at half. I challenged them for the second half.”
The Spears heeded Duguay’s words.
“The players responded in all aspects of the game. There were two moments that stick in my mind. Aidan Johnston ‘Randy Mossed’ a Brampton defender and the second was when a Brampton player broke free and Devon Dalmage and Noah Kugler chased him downed 63 yards. This just shows that this team never gives up. Proud of them but there are some teams where we can’t play like that.”
Scoring for Niagara were: Wesley Weins on a 25-yard TD pass from from Matthew Murray; Joseph Martinelli on a 20 yard TD pass from from Murray; Johnston on an 11-yard TD pass from Murray; Elijah Jama on a one-yard TD run; and, Ethan Hampshire with 27 and 26-yard field goals and two converts. Murray finished with 17 completions for 185 yards passing.
On defence: Kugler had a solo tackle, six assisted tackles and an interception; Nick Jubenville had six assisted tackles and a sack; and, Ryan Broome had a tackle, six assisted tackles, a solo sack and an assisted sack.
The Spears are at Cambridge Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
THUNDER 42 BANTAM SPEARS 26
The Niagara Spears bantam football team led 20-18 at the half before giving up four touchdowns in the second half to fall 42-26 to the Scarborough Thunder in OSFL action last Saturday.
“We need to do better in the second half of the games and it is something the coaches and I will be working on this week as we prepare for Cambridge,” head coach Troy Herbert said.
Leading the way for the under-14 Spears were: Loxdyn Raducanu, who completed 12 passes, including three for touchdowns, and also ran in a two-point convert; Braiden McLean with two touchdown receptions; Spencer McRae with a touchdown reception; Asar McIntrye-Christie with a touchdown run; strong defensive games by Tamas Hunter, McRae, McIntyre-Christie, Kelvin Johnson, Dominic Learning and Tristan Herbert; and, Noah Roller had an excellent game punting the ball.
“We will work hard this week at practice in preparation for our next game against Cambridge,” Herbert said.
JV SPEARS
The junior varsity Spears had a bye week and are at Cambridge Saturday.
