Myer dumps Irish in SOSSA semifinals

The A.N. Myer Marauders senior football team went out and won one for their coach Thursday night.

“To a man, we were not happy with the Sir Winston Churchill game, even some stuff that happened on social media. People were saying some things and it hurt this team and it hurt these guys. We showed how good we are and how proud we are as a program,” Myer head coach Dave Buchanan said, after his team thumped the visiting Notre Dame Fighting Irish 39-7 in the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools semifinals. “My father (Tom Buchanan) passed away this year and he always said ‘If everybody loves you, you are doing something wrong.’ The boys used that as a rallying cry for me today.”

Buchanan was emotional Thursday night thinking about his dad and his team.

“When he passed away, this whole team showed up to the funeral home and I told them that his spirit was here with us today and to a kid they reminded me of that.”

All of Myer’s players wanted to get the win for their head coach.

“We would do anything for that guy and when he brings up something like that, we are on the same page with him and we are going to play for that man,” Myer player Deniz Duzgun said. “That is the biggest reason for our success. We want to play for our coach and we will put our bodies on the line for him.”

Duzgun was dominant after returning from an injury that kept him out of the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association championship game. He had a rushing touchdown, a TD pass reception, a sack and a knocked down pass.

“He is such an impactful player. He is passionate and from where that young man came from from Grade 9 until now is amazing,” Buchanan said. “He sets the tone for us and he has become a really good leader.”

Duzgun is also a master chirper, who has a knack for getting under the skin of opposition coaches and players.

“I can’t let them play their best game. I have to kick them off it a little bit and show them who we are. I have to remind those guys that they are not all that,” he said. “It gets the boys around me going too and it gets everyone fired up. We are all teens and that’s what is in our blood. We are young and trying to have fun.”

The Marauders had plenty of fun Thursday and looked nothing like the team that lost the NRHSAA Tier 1 championship game two weeks ago against Sir Winston Churchill.

“I am always worried about the opposing team because they are a tough team but I wasn’t worried about the effort today,” Buchanan said. “It was our most compete game. You never want to lose but the loss we had was exactly what we needed. We demonstrated we are a physical and a complete team. We demonstrated we can run the ball too and our line did a great, great job.”

Myer set the tone early. On its first possession, five straight runs for first downs set up Noah Walters to throw a 17-yard TD pass to Deniz Duzgun.

“That is a testament to the preparation that went in. From myself down, I said we didn’t coach well enough, we didn’t play well enough and my coaching staff is amazing with the amount of time they put into preparation,” Buchanan said. “Dan Pepe called an amazing game and Josh Lisi called great game as the D coordinator and team rallied.”

Duzgun felt the main difference in the game versus Notre Dame compared to Churchill was intensity.

“We came out with more heart overall, we tried harder and we wanted it more,” he said. “We came into Sir Winston thinking it would be a cakewalk and these guys came in here thinking it would be a cakewalk. We showed who we are, we played Myer football and we don’t ever want to lose again. We hate that feeling.”

Myer now moves on to play Westmount in the SOSSA Bowl.

“I have a lot of respect for Westmount and that coaching staff is really, really strong,” Buchanan said. “They are a solid group and we know it is going to be a good game. The boys will be happy tonight but we will reload and turn it around in a hurry because we play on Tuesday.”

Notre Dame turned the ball over six times and looked sluggish in a 20-18 victory over Saint Francis in the Niagara Catholic final. The Irish didn’t look any better versus Myer on Thursday night.

“We played four weeks ago against Saint Francis and we were playing pretty decently and then we were off three weeks,” Irish head coach Tim Bisci said. “We didn’t play well at all last week and it just kept going with this. We just couldn’t get that momentum going again today.”

As the game went on, things went from bad to worse for Notre Dame.

“We got a couple of kids ejected, we had a couple of kids go down with injuries and hopefully Peyton Gaetano is OK,” he said. “We ran thin and it got to a point where we were trying to do some things and we had kids who were in the game who aren’t normally in the game trying to figure things out. It just went downhill real quick.”

Bisci agree Myer took control of the game from the opening whistle.

“They did and we just have never been able to get back to how we were playing and maybe it is on me.”

Notre Dame will regroup for next year.

“We will see who shows up, get the guys in the weight room and try and piece it together from there,” Bisci said.

STATS PACK

Marauders 39 Fighting Irish 7

Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Myer’s Deniz Duzgun with two TDs, a sack and a batted pass.

For the A.N. Myer Marauders: 7-yard TD pass Noah Walters to Deniz Duzgun; four-yard TD run by Duzgun; 19-yard TD pass from Walters to Jonny Colcuc; one-yard QB keeper TD by Walters; eight-yard TD run Marco Angelini; 29-yard field goal by Colcuc; and, sack and batted pass by Duzgun.

For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: three-yard TD run by Ben Tsanoff.

Game stats: First downs: ANM 20, ND 8. Net offensive yards: ANM 346, ND 137. Turnovers: ANM 1, ND 3. Penalties: ANM 7 for 35 yards, ND 6 for 60 yards.

Up next: A.N. Myer advances to the SOSSA Bowl next Tuesday at 5 p.m. at A.N. Myer against Westmount.