Spears take one of three versus Lions
The Niagara Spears varsity football team fell to 2-4 in Ontario Summer Football League AAA action last Saturday following a 25-9 road loss to the Cambridge Lions.
“This was a really pivotal game for us. If we won, we would hold our destiny in our hands,” Spears head coach Brian Duguay said.
That didn’t happen for a number of reasons.
“We talk about playing four quarters, minimizing our mistakes, taking the game to them and we needed to win two out of three categories and stop the penalties when we stop them on third down or on punt return,” he said. “Taking penalties to continue drives has killed us in three games. We didn’t accomplish our goal, now others hold our destiny in their hands. Matty (Murray) had a lot of nice passes dropped by our receivers, who usually catch those passes. He should’ve had a higher completion rating.”
Cambridge scored a touchdown on its opening drive, added a two-point convert and never looked back.
The Lions led 16-2 at the half before Murray connected with Wes Weins on a 30-yard touchdown pass. Ethan Hampshire connected on the point after, making the score 16-9.
The Spears forced a turnover on downs on the next possession but the Lions ended up with a first down because of a flag. Two more penalties saw the ball moved down to Niagara’s two-yard line where Cambridge punched it in for a 24-9 lead.
Niagara was unable to reply while Cambridge kicked a rouge to make the final 25-9.
Top performers for Niagara were: Nick Jubenville with five solo tackles and seven assisted tackles; Cole Stewart with four solo tackles and six assisted tackles; Murray who was 17-37 passing for 175 yards and one TD; and, Wiens, with three receptions for 57 yards, including the major.
The Spears host Oakville Saturday at 8 p.m. at Kiwanis Field.
LIONS 23 U16 SPEARS 0
The Spears junior varsity football team remained winless in OSFL AAA action after losing 23-0 on the road to the Cambridge Lions.
“The game went like most of the games this season,” Spears head coach Brad Martin said. “It’s frustrating because we are making good progress and it’s just the consistency piece. We are struggling with our consistency. We make three or four good plays in a row and then we make a series of bad plays. We are seeing improvement but until we learn to be a little more consistent, we are going to struggle.”
With two games left in the regular season, the JV Spears are rapidly running out of time.
“We have Oakville this week and Scarborough and Burlington left and then we have the second tier playoffs,” he said. “We need to get organized and start pulling through.”
At the start of the season, Martin was confident in what his team could do but things haven’t quite worked out.
“As far as talent goes, we match up pretty well against the rest of the province. We lost to London by three, we were losing by two points at the half against Hamilton and Kingston was close,” he said. “When we make mistakes they are big.”
Playing well for the Spears against Cambridge were: defensive player of the game Adam Skeldon; and, Nolan Thorpe who recorded an interception.
The Spears host Oakville at 4 p.m. ay Kiwanis Field.
BANTAM SPEARS 43 LIONS 21
The Niagara Spears bantam football team earned its first OSFL AAA win of the season by knocking off the Cambridge Lions 43-21 on the road last weekend.
“The team played well on both sides of the ball and for all four quarters. I was very happy with the way they played,” Niagara head coach Troy Herbert said.
Scoring for the Spears were: Tamas Hunter on a 60-yard fumble recovery followed by Asar McIntyre-Christie with a two-point convert; McIntyre-Christie with TD runs of seven and 33 yards; Braiden McLean with a two-point convert on a pass from Loxdyn Raducanu; Nicolas Moore with a six-yard TD reception from Raducanu; Spencer McRae had a 33-yard TD run and an 11-yard TD pass to McLean; and, Noah Roller added a field goal.
Top performers on defence were: Hunter who also had three solo tackles and two assisted tackles; McRae who had four solo tackles, seven assisted tackles, a sack and two force fumbles; and, Tristan Herbert who had three solo tackles and six assisted tackles.
“This was a good team effort to win this game. We led 28-14 at the half and Cambridge pulled to within a score but the players showed their resilience and stopped the comeback attempt in its tracks,” Herbert said. “I was very pleased with how the team just kept working hard all game. We will enjoy this win but will get back to work this week preparing for our home game on Saturday against Durham.”
Niagara hosts Durham at 1 p.m. at Kiwanis Field.
