Thunder back leads BT past St. Mike’s
The Blessed Trinity Thunder improved to 4-1 in NCAA senior football action Friday with a 15-5 victory over the Saint Michael Mustangs. Photos by WILLIAM VANDERLAND.
Isaac McAlonan is enjoying his victory lap with the Blessed Trinity Thunder senior boys football team.
“Things are going really well,” the 18-year-old said. “Coming back as a Grade 13 player, we have some young guys on the team, but every day we come to practice and work hard.
“We are seeing the team coming together and we are starting to get some wins.”
The latest win came Friday when the Thunder defeated the Saint Michael Mustangs 15-5 in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association play.
Like he has done all season, McAlonan played a key role in the victory, scoring a touchdown and contributing on both sides of the ball.
“He always brings his A game, he makes guys miss and he’s just as effective juking guys as trucking over them. He’s one of our big play guys, for sure,” BT head coach Sean Jones said. “He’s a great player and someone who can play at the next level.”
A desire to play at that next level is why McAlonan returned for his 12B year.
“I decided to come back to prepare myself a little bit more and to get ready to play football at the next level,” the six foot, 170-pounder said. “I wanted to hit the gym and get myself focused to get there.”
He had some interest from university scouts last season, but after talking to former teammates who had moved on to university football, he felt another year of high school would be a good decision.
“I needed to do a massive amount of training because the university level is a very big step from high school,” he said. “I needed to work on my speed and consistency and get in the weight room.”
He continues to work hard as he pursues his long-term goal.
“It has always been a dream of mine to play football at the next level and I wanted to give myself the best shot possible and give it my all.”
Saint Mike’s gave its all Friday and head coach Keith Bomberry was much happier with his team’s performance compared with Tuesday’s loss to Saint Paul.
“We lost a couple more guys to injuries and we had a gutsy performance,” he said. “Riley Hart unexpectedly left with a concussion and that really hurt us and we had to adjust.
“It minimized our plays and how we called the game, but our defence played tough, forcing some turnovers and some punts.”
Saint Michael was unable to muster much on offence for obvious reasons.
“We only had one starter (left) on offence,” Bomberry said. “We had some positive plays and we have to build off of what we did right, fix the mistakes and hopefully we can come up with a victory next week to get in the playoffs.”
The Mustangs are at St. Francis next Thursday.
Blessed Trinity improved to 4-1 with the victory and will host Saint Paul in its regular-season finale next week. Home-field advantage could be at stake in the game.
“We are where we want to be overall but there are a lot things to work on and a lot of things we could be better at,” Jones said.
Friday’s game was a physical battle.
“We played tough and the guys were physical out there,” Jones said. “There was a lot of banging around on a day that it was tough to throw.”
STATS PACK
Thunder 15 Mustangs 5
Johnny’s Rocco’s/Mick and Angelo’s Player of the Game: Blessed Trinity’s Isaac McAlonan with a 15-yard TD run and a strong game on offence and defence.
For the Blessed Trinity Thunder: McAlonan, TD; 15-yard TD pass from Xavier Hamidu to Max Mosquite; Jacob Kohut, sack; defensive safety.
For the Saint Michael Mustangs: Noah Wilson, 20-yard field goal; defensive safety; Clayton Roperti, fumble recovery and sack for loss of 30 yards; Carson Gilbert and Zack Keldson, fumble recoveries.
