Varsity and JV Spears record first wins
The Niagara Spears’ quarterback carousel landed on Jackson Stewart Saturday night and the result was a 36-22 victory over the visiting Etobicoke Eagles in Ontario Summer Football League action.
Stewart and fellow quarterbacks Matt Murray and Xavier Zatylny all saw action Saturday but it was Stewart who did the bulk of the damage.
The Saint Francis product completed 17-20 passes for 117 yards and two majors helping the Spears record their first win of the season.
“He has a very good arm on him and from game to game he keeps getting better and better,” said JV head coach Brad Martin, who was filling in for Brian Duguay who was feeling under the weather. “He’s more accurate and I think he is getting more confident with each game. Plus the guys around him are responding well to him.”
Martin appreciates Stewart’s calm demeanour.
“He just goes out and plays and if he makes a mistake he doesn’t beat himself up. He just goes on to the next play. He has a quiet confidence about him and he just continues to work.”
Last season, the six foot,185-pound quarterback was part of an even larger quarterback corps, with Marshall McCray taking the lion’s share of snaps and Stewart, Murray and Zatylny all seeing action at various times.
It was a good experience for Stewart.
“The biggest thing I learned was getting the ball out on time. You have to get the ball out quick because they are coming for you.”
The battle for starting quarterback position is still ongoing this season.
“Right now we are all sharing time and we all have our strengths and weaknesses,” the 18-year-old said. “I am doing what I can when I am in.”
His role on the team is to be a leader and throw the ball. Stewart has been playing football since he was eight years old and is in his third year with the Spears organization. He feels he has made progress each year.
Martin was happy to see the varsity squad record its first win of the season.
“They had a good week of practice and they worked pretty hard,” he said. “They played really good today and they worked well on offence and defence.”
Stewart was also happy with the win.
“It’s great. We won when it matters. This was a great game to build our confidence. Our offence played really well and we moved the ball way better than we did any other game. We started clicking and we worked as one unit today.”
JV SPEARS 34 EAGLES 20
The Niagara Spears junior varsity (under-16) football team defeated the visiting Etobicoke Eagles 34-20 Saturday afternoon to improve its OSFL record to 1-2.
“The kids played really well today,” head coach Brad Martin said. “In the fourth quarter, our seconds and thirds got in so they got some good game experience.”
There was lots for the Spears coaching staff to like about the game.
“I like the way they are starting to jell as a team. Offensively, Austin MacRae is a good quarterback and Joey Martinelli is a good receiver and they are starting to get a nice connection. And the offensive and defensive lines played really well today,” he said. “We are really starting to come together and hopefully we will be able to get the penalties down because we are still making mistakes with procedure, holding and things like that.”
Scoring majors for the Spears were Martinelli with two receiving majors; Cameron Parlee with one receiving touchdown; MacRae had a rushing major; and, Calem Smith had a receiving TD.
On defence, Carter Small, Sean Northcott, Dillon Finnerty and Zachary Pallister had fumble recoveries.
STATS PACK
Spears 36 Eagles 22
BPSN Player of the Game: Niagara’s Justin Savoie with 98 rushing yards, including a five yard TD run, and a punt block followed by a 25-yard return for a TD.
For the Niagara Spears: Savoie, two TDs; Jackson Stewart, 17-20 passing for 117 yards, including a 10-yard TD pass to Elijah Pappin and a seven-yard TD pass to Jack Wilson; Wilson with 80 receiving yards; Lucas Johnson, 107 return yards, including a 65-yard punt return major and 20 receiving yards; Ryan Midany, 4-4 in converts; Noah Kugier, interception; Jacob Ranger, four solo tackles, one assisted tackle and one tackle for loss; Raydon Gouthro Selman, three solo tackles and a tackle for loss of yards; and, Jacob Shannon, two solo tackles and two assisted tackles.
For the Etobicoke Eagles: four-yard TD run by Jason Varghese; five-yard TD run by Omar Martin; 10-yard TD pass from Adrian Mohammad to James Phillips; two-point convert on pass from Mohammad to Phillips.
Game stats: First downs: Spears 12, Eagles 13. Net offence: Spears 225, Eagles 221. Turnovers: Spears 3, Eagles 3. Penalties: Spears 15 for 159 yards, Eagles 11 for 75 yards.
Up next: The Spears play Hamilton at Cardinal Newman Saturday at 6 p.m.
