Marauders thump Bulldogs to remain unbeaten
Last season, Willy Jackman stayed away from the football field.
The 18-year-old Myer student was focusing on baseball —he’s hoping to get a scholarship to play in the States — and didn’t want to follow up his Grade 11 season where he was the backup quarterback on the senior squad.
All that changed this year.
“This year, I decided to stay back for 12B and try and be the starter,” he said Friday, after throwing five TD passes and rushing for another as the visiting A.N. Myer Marauders defeated the Sir Winston Bulldogs 49-6 in Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Tier 1 senior football action.
It was his teammates who persuaded him to return to the football field.
“Most of them are 12B and I wanted to come back and play with my friends for my final year.”
The 6-foot-1, 212-pound quarterback feels things have been going well for him and the unbeaten Marauders (5-0)
“There’s a few things that I can work on and maybe just knowing football more,” he said. “It’s reading defences and calling blitzes out.”
He feels he has made improvements as the season has gone on.
“My balls that I throw have gotten nicer,” he said. “I used to throw them a little wobbly at the beginning of the season and I wasn’t really reading progressions and working through them.”
Jackman emerged as the starting quarterback following a three-man battle at training camp.
“Willy won it and it was us trying to make the most of every player that we have,” Myer head coach Dave Buchanan said. “One of the other players we are using on defence and offence.”
Jackman got the nod because of his experience running the offence as the backup quarterback in his Grade 11 year.
“He is in the control of the game and he’s picking up blitzes and seeing things a little better than the Grade 11 quarterback would have at this point,” he said.
That being said, Grade 11 quarterback Drake Sommerville was the winning quarterback in Myer’s first game against Churchill.
“I am lucky to have those options,” Buchanan said.
At the start of the season, he thought his team had a chance to be really good.
“There’s glimpses but we’re not quite there, and then you see moments like how we started out tonight,” he said. “But they (Churchill) were a little shorthanded and it wasn’t a true test because the first time we played them it was a good game.”
Things have evolved for the Marauders as the season had moved along.
“We’ve had some injuries which has really hurt but guys have stepped up and that was kind of my point,” Buchanan said. “We are going to find a way to find the players that are going to be able to step in. There’s enough good players that we could be really good.”
One area the team is already great at is being unified.
“The team is meshing and I feel it is a tighter team than we’ve had in the last little bit which is really important in big games,” Buchanan said.
The Bulldogs fell to 1-4 on the season as they continued to struggle with injuries.
“Injuries kill,” Churchill head coach Peter Perron said. “This week we were missing four starters and last week we had seven or eight kids away with injuries.
“All we can do is pray and hope and hopefully we will get some of them back for the playoffs.”
Perron is hopeful several players will be back for the playoffs and may sit out those that are close in the team’s final regular season game against Westlane. He isn’t worried that a loss in the game and in the tiebreaker with Westlane will mean a semifinal match against unbeaten Myer.
“It will be GFESS (Greater Fort Erie) or Myer one and two and they are interchangeable,” Perron said. “They are both pretty equal and whoever we play in the semifinals, I will have to beat them both.”
STATS PACK
Marauders 49 Bulldogs 6
Johnny Rocco’s/Mick and Angelo’s/Cracker Jacks Player of the Game: A.N. Myer’s Willy Jackman with five TD passes and a short TD run.
For the A.N. Myer Marauders: TD passes from Jackman to Trent Hunter (2), Jacob Burke, Kyle Wilson and Ethan Carmichael; TD run by Curtis Zwierschke; Chris Bechkos, seven converts; interceptions by Jorge Rodriguez (his fifth straight game with a pick); Sandro Pierini and Cedric Robinson; and, sack by James Rupp.
For the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: 30-yard TD pass to Noah Dommasch from Ryan Cormier.
EAGLES 27 GOLDEN EAGLES 15
The Grimsby Eagles (3-2) defeated the Thorold Golden Eagles 27-15 Thursday in Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Tier 2 senior football action to clinch third place and a first-round bye.
“It was a good win for us,” Grimsby head coach Zack Silvethorne said. “Finishing third gets us a week off before heading back to Simcoe for a Week 1 rematch.
“The rest and recovery time is drastically needed as injuries are piling up. We need to be more consistent in all three phases of the game if we want to succeed in the playoffs.”
Contributing to the win were: Ty Mitchell with TD catches of 52, 57 and 17 yards from quarterback Even Reece; Reece Baltus booted 27- and 28-yard field goals; Ryan Neudorf rushed for 128 yards on 16 carries; Mike Farmer and Liam Bogucki had interceptions; and, Josh Seabrook and Aidan Shaw recorded sacks.
For Thorold (1-4): Nate Brew punted for a single, caught a TD pass and had a two-point convert; Daniel Swayze had a 70-yard punt return for a TD; Matt York has an interception; and, Yvan Canlas threw the ball well in windy conditions, going 11-18 for 146 yards.
“We couldn’t match their size on the line and No. 14 (Mitchell) carved us up pretty good,” Thorold head coach Duane Kemp said. “We were down a few bodies due to injuries and illness but former players and now coaches, offensive coordinator Bill McGarrigle and defensive coordinator Ryan Cecchini, moved players around to keep it competitive.”
Thorold will now play Eden to see who joins Centennial, Governor Simcoe and Grimsby in the semifinals. Centennial finished in first place with a 5-0 record after a forfeit victory over St. Catharines Collegiate (0-5).
