Oct. 15 Football Report: Niagara Generals: OUA
The Niagara Generals bantam football team improved to 4-3 in Ontario Football League play last Saturday afternoon with a convincing 37-6 win over the visiting York Lions (4-3).
“This week was a week of redemption for our Generals,” head coach Jim Storin said. “Our boys were not happy with last week’s loss and felt they had something to prove.”
It was the first game Niagara was back at full strength with its roster since the second week of the season.
The Generals were led yet again by their smothering defence. Defensive tackles Landon Tracey and McRory Grant faced double teams all day which allowed the blitz packages to work for a number of tackles for losses and four turnovers.
Mathew Gichard led the defence with two fumble recoveries and Jayden Gurzi-MacDonald had one.
“The defence as a whole was firing on all cylinders, only allowing one scoring play and making it possible for the offence to put up 35 points,” Storin said.
On offence: David Robinson threw three TD passes to Clayton Crawford; Crawford and Gurzi-MacDonald added rushing TDs; Robinson and Gichard had two-point converts; Nathaniel McAlpine had a single convert; and, the defence also had a safety to round out the scoring.
“Cole Haan had a great game running the ball as well helping on defence as an injury replacement, forcing and recovering a fumble,” Storin said.
Also playing well on defence were Matteo Iuni, Brodie Storin and Hunter Young.
“They made it difficult for York to move the ball to their (Niagara’s) side of the field.”
Niagara is at Waterloo this weekend. The Generals won 33-0 when the teams met in Week 5.
Bisons 57 Peewee Generals 47
The Niagara Generals peewee football team dropped a 57-47 decision at home to the Brantford Bisons.
“With all the effort our team has put in over the past couple months, I cannot say I’m disappointed,” Niagara head coach Bruce MacRae said. “We head into next week getting ready to play a very tough London team.”
MacRae singled out the play of lineman Lucas Nicol and two-way player Timmy Vinson.
Leading the offence for the Generals were: Cameron MacRae and Hudson Grant with more than 100 rushing yards each; Zeke Langendoen and Nick McKinnon with three touchdowns; and, Hudson Grant with a 70-yard rushing major.
MacRae is confident his team can finish the season strong.
“I have a lot of faith in this team going into the playoffs” he said.
OUA FOOTBALL ROUNDUP
Carleton 35 McMaster 30
Josh Ferguson (Sir Winston Churchill) had 32 carries for 187 yards and TD runs of seven and 18 yards to help Carleton (3-4) upset McMaster (5-2).
Also for Carleton, Keaton Bruggeling (Eden) had two catches for nine yards.
Laurier 53 Waterloo 50
Tre Ford (A.N. Myer) was 27-43 passing for 351 yards and threw TD passes of 52 and five yards, and had 16 carries for 135 yards, including TD runs of nine, four yard and eight yards, but it wasn’t enough as Waterloo (4-3) lost to Laurier (4-3).
Also for Waterloo: Rushon Dagelman (Myer) had two catches for 11 yards; and, Tyrell Ford (Myer), had four kick returns for 35 yards and two punt returns for 26 yards.
Guelph 27 Queen’s 24
Anthony Federico (Saint Michael) had six solo tackles and two sacks in a losing cause as Queen’s (2-5) lost to Guelph (5-2).
For Guelph, Jordan Terrio (Saint Paul) had three catches for 23 yards and Greg Corfield (Saint Paul) had one solo tackle and four assisted tackles.
Among the local players in the top 10 of Ontario University Athletics’ statistical categories are: Tre Ford, third in yards passing per game (285.9), tied for fourth in passing TDs (13), fifth in yards rushing per game (85.3) and second in TDs (6); and, Federico (7.5) first in sacks.
