Cougars roll over Saints to advance
Ethan Podetz set the tone early for the Centennial Cougars Thursday.
The 17-year-old, Grade 12B student ran for an early touchdown in the second quarter and also had another long run to set up a second major, as the Cougars blanked the St. Catharines Collegiate Saints 30-0 in a Niagara District High School Athletic Association senior football league Tier 2 quarter-final playoff game at the Collegiate.
Podetz, who turns 18 next week, was thrilled to be able to play such a major role in the victory.
“We’ve had a losing streak for the longest time and just to come and get back-to-back wins is the greatest feeling in the world, especially since it’s my last year with the team,” Podetz said. “We’ve had some trouble on offence all year and just getting a few touchdowns early really set the tone and helped our defence get motived to work hard.”
Centennial coach Domenic Nero couldn’t say enough about what Podetz means to the team.
“He brings a little bit of everything,” Nero said. “It’s hard to take a player like that off the field. He played linebacker and safety at points today and we had him at tight end and in the backfield and he’s in on kickoffs.
“He’s a guy who breathes football. That’s what his athletic life is all about.”
Following a scoreless first quarter, the Cougars went to work and collected three majors to lead 21-0 at the half.
Podetz, who plans to play for the Niagara Spears this summer and study sports management at Niagara College next year, said the message at the half was to keep the pedal to the metal.
“We talked about not letting our foot off the gas and making sure that we continued to set the tone and work hard and just play smash mouth football,” he said.
The game was played in a steady rain, making footing treacherous and passing even harder — Centennial quarterback Josh Boyle did not even attempt a pass.
“We basically have our side field, which is just as crappy, if not worse than this, so all we really had to do was practice on that and make sure we had our foot down before we made any cuts,” Podetz said.
Nero feels the win could be a building block for his squad.
“It’s obviously good to see that (win). It was something our guys and program really needs,” he said. “We went about two years between victories so it’s obviously a tough thing. Getting a win two weeks ago and being able to put another one together here is big for our morale and big for our school and football program.”
He also knows the competition will get tougher next week.
“It always feels good to win, but we’re never happy. There were still a lot of mistakes we made and things we need to clean up. We know we’re playing a good Governor Simcoe team next week and we can’t make these same kind of mistakes. We still have a lot of work to do.”
Saints assistant Dan Pepe put into perspective the struggles of Collegiate’s program this season.
“It’s a very young team and there was a point in the year where we were very discouraged with the turnout we were getting,” Pepe said. “We were concerned we may not make it to the end of the year but then we hit a point where we started appreciating the kids showing up and they held strong and finished with good attitudes. What more could we really ask?”
Cougars 30 Saints 0
Johnny Rocco’s/Mick and Angelo’s Star of the Game: Centennial’s Ethan Podetz with a rushing touchdown along with several other big plays on both sides of the ball.
For the Centennial Cougars: Podetz, Merrick Spencer, Caleb Pelletier and Josh Boyle with rushing touchdowns; Chris Crawford 4 converts; Josh Goodfellow, Cody Taylor interceptions; Collegiate conceded a safety.
For the St. Catharines Collegiate Saints: No scoring.
Through the air: Collegiate quarterback Joe Waterman 4-for-8 with two interceptions; Centennial quarterback Josh Boyle did not attempt a pass.
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