Minor football report: Generals; Raiders; atom house league
The Niagara Generals bantam (U12) football team opened its Ontario Summer Football League season at home with a dominating 46-7 victory over the visiting Brantford Bisons.
The Bisons scored on their first possession and then Niagara reeled off 46 unanswered points to record the victory.
“I must give credit to my coaching staff who have put in a lot of time to prepare the kids to play and be competitive,” head coach Cliff Miller said. “The game ball would go to the entire team. There was not just one player who shone this week. The whole team stepped up.”
There were contributions from everywhere.
“The O line blocked well and gave our quarterback time to find his targets and also made holes for the ball carriers. The D line forced a lot of fumbles and had a plethora of tackles for losses,” he said. “I could not be more proud with the way this team is coming together.”
Niagara is at Sarnia this weekend.
“As always, it’s back to the drawing board to iron out the kinks and make improvements where they are needed,” Miller said.
BANTAM A NIAGARA RAIDERS
Led by coaches Daniel Federico, Lucas Devlin, Andrew Conte, P.J. Grisafi, Erik Leskiw and Benny Dipola, the Niagara Raiders bantam A football team opened its inaugural season with a 12-0 victory over the Mississauga Huskies.
Leading the way for Niagara were: Abraham Hiebert with a passing touchdown; Rudy Sommerville who connected with Hunter Gray for another passing touchdown; Sam Edwards (interception) and Jake Bover (fumble recovery) with excellent play from the linebacker position; and, Jacob Leon with an interception.
“The defence started hot and I hope to keep the energy going into the week of practice,” coach Conte said.
Head coach Federico was also pleased.
“The offence looked great all-around and I’m hoping we have a successful season.”
The Niagara Regional Minor Football Association connected with other city centres this year to start a single A division for bantam players. Since COVID, most organizations have not had the numbers to run a house league. The association’s travel teams have been hugely successful but there’s always enough players for two teams and the effect is that either players get cut which takes away their opportunity to play football, or teams end up with large teams with limited playing time. Both scenarios are not good for kids.
“We are so glad the NRMFA reached out to form this loop,” said Dennis Thomas, the player recruitment rep from Mississauga. “Had it not been for this, we would have had to send our players to other city centres to play on rosters 50 and 60 players deep. This new loop will save the program.”
ATOM HOUSE LEAGUE
The NRMFA’s atom house league is back to give the opportunity to kids in Grade 2 and 3 to start to learn how to safely tackle, block, and run plays in full gear. The beauty of the sport is that players of every size and shape are needed to form a great team. Many sports cater to kids that can run quickly. In football, every type of player is celebrated. There are currently three teams and the association would love to have a few more. It is still taking registrations at www.footballniagara.com.
The first scrimmage day went well.
Team White had touchdowns from Carter Bacon off a pass and Cole Bertrand had an interception and a touchdown. Quarterback Ike Good had two touchdowns.
Team Black had some great runs from Hudsyn Wencel, QB Isaac Warden, and Kohen Mathes. Mathes finished the game with a touchdown.