Bone leads Marauders into football final
Dallas Bone is a Jack of all trades for the A.N. Myer Marauders senior football team.
The Grade 12B student handles all the kicking duties, returns punts and kickoffs, plays receiver and is also utilized in the defensive backfield.
“He does everything and he is just steady,” Myer head coach Dave Buchanan said. “He is a good, all-around football player, he understands the game and I can play him anywhere and have faith in him.”
The 18-year-old showed his prowess on special teams Thursday night, returning a pair of punts for touchdowns to help the Marauders thump the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 58-0 in Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Tier 1 semifinal action.
The 6-foot-1, 170-pounder is enjoying every moment as his high school football career winds down.
“I am still looking forward to four more games if we make it all the way and I want to play them as hard as I can so something good can come out of it.”
Like many of his teammates, Bone is motivated by last season.
“Notre Dame got us last year and we are hoping to return to OFSAA, try to get another bowl before all our 12Bs leave and try to get payback on them.”
Bone is in his third year of senior football and feels he is a lot different player now.
“Having Tyrell (Ford) here when I was in Grade 11 really helped me evolve my game, be more consistent and give 100 per cent every play instead of taking some time off,” he said. “I feel that helped make me a better player.”
He has tried to share the lessons Ford taught him.
“I try to help the younger kids as much as I can in practice and even during games.”
Bone has received scholarship interest from Carleton, Queen’s, Guelph, Windsor, Western and Waterloo among others and Buchanan sees Bone as ready to make that leap.
“I definitely expect him to play at the next level as a receiver,” he said. “They want people who are cerebral.”
Bone has goals that exceed university.
“I want to hopefully play in the CFL one day and take my football career as far as I can.”
Thursday night’s win by Myer sets up the championship game next Friday versus Westlane. Myer beat Westlane 45-6 on Sept. 28.
“This team is totally pumped to play the Stamford/Westlane combination,” Buchanan said. “It has become a rivalry game and I am very happy for Stamford/Westlane that they have a team going to the championship game.”
Westlane/Stamford plays a very physical and edgy game.
“We know that’s coming and we are not afraid of that,” Buchanan said. “The only thing I ask of any coaching staff in any game, and I think Brad (Martin) and Jason (Babony) will honour this, is to play safe.
“Both teams will go hard and it will be a physical game and we absolutely need that.”
Buchanan feels the Spartans had an off game when they met the Marauders in the regular season.
“I think they will be better this time and we are looking forward to it.”
The game is tentatively scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. at Myer.
“This is the city championship and there’s a lot of interesting stories there,” Buchanan said. “I started coaching out with Brad and he gave me an opportunity.
“I remember that stuff.”
Churchill coach Peter Perron said Thursday’s game went exactly as he expected after the Bulldogs were physically pounded last week in a loss to Westlane.
“There were no surprises when you lose 14 starters from last week,” he said. “It was a rough game last week, there were a lot of URs (unnecessary roughness penalties) and it cost us.
“It is what it is, we are a team and there was no idea of forfeiting.”
Churchill fielded a team Thursday that had only three or four Grade 12s and a ton of Grade 10s. It was no match for Myer.
“This was a heckuva experience against one of the top teams in the province,” Perron said. “It shows the kids what they need to do to get to that level.”
The Marauders didn’t get a lot out of Thursday’s game other than staying healthy and continuing to learn lessons on sportsmanship.
“It’s an opportunity for our kids to be classy,” Buchanan said. “The message in that game is you play hard but you respect a team that is very young and is trying to build.
“When scores get like this sometimes, the other team can get upset at you. I get that and that has happened this season.”
It wasn’t that long ago that Myer was on the wrong end of blowout scores and Buchanan still recalls those games.
“Tonight I think we did a better job then maybe what we did against Grimsby,” Buchanan said, referring to a 71-0 win over Grimsby Oct. 12.
“I learned by that,” he said. “Sometimes you make mistakes, but our kids on the Grimsby night were great and tonight they were great.”
STATS PACK
Marauders 58 Bulldogs 0
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s Players of the Game: Myer’s Dallas Bone with punt return TDs of 40 and 30 yards and Myer’s Jeremiah Nyambiya with TD runs of one, 15 and 20 yards.
For the A.N. Myer Marauders: Nyambiya, three TDs; Bone, two TDs; 30-yard TD pass from Ryan James to Kyle Wilson; 12-yard TD run by Jacob Burke, 80-yard TD pass from Burke to Mateo Corritore; Jay Patel and Brodie O’Toole, interceptions.
