Winless weekend for Spears
The Niagara Spears varsity football team finished the Ontario Summer Football League regular season with a 2-6 record after falling 24-12 to the Burlington Stampeders Monday on the road.
“We played really well. It was 3-0 at halftime,” Spears head coach Brian Duguay said.
Burlington led 10-0 in the second half before Niagara cut the lead to 10-6. That was as close as the Spears would get.
“We had some injuries and that was the end of it. The receivers dropped a lot of good balls from Matty (Murray) and we couldn’t capitalize on a lot of our stuff. The defence played great.”
The above description summed up many of the Spears games this season.
“The defence has been doing really well and the offence has to help them out and keep them off the field. They need to get some scores so we can win those close games,” Duguay said. “If you are holding teams to three points in the first half, hopefully you are going to outpoint them.”
Niagara now plays the Brampton Bulldogs Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Kiwanis Park in the B Cup quarter-finals. The winner advances to play the Myers Riders in the semifinals.
“That was an important game for us. If we lost, we had to go to Ottawa instead of everything coming through us,” he said.
Duguay describes Brampton as a good team.
“They have a lot of talent. They are fast and their problem the last time we played them was that it was an undisciplined game on both sides. It is going to come down to who is disciplined and who is going to be able to execute.”
Scoring for Niagara against Burlington were: Ethan Krick on a 40-yard TD pass from Murray; and, Joe Martinelli with an 80-yard TD reception from Murray
On defence: Nick Jubenville had five solo tackles, two assisted tackles and a solo sack; Devon Dulmage had one solo tackle and four assisted tackles; and, Justin Savoie had five assisted tackles
JV SPEARS
The Niagara Spears junior varsity (under-16) football team finished the OSFL regular season at 1-7 after losing 39-7 to the Scarborough Thunder and 42-0 to the Burlington Stampeders in its final two games.
“We played Burlington, the No. 1 team in the province, and they are exceptionally good. We saw a lot of good things out of our younger players in the second half,” Niagara head coach Brad Martin said. “Against Scarborough, we just didn’t play very well.”
He expected more of his club during the regular season.
“We have a young team and they are developing but it is a painful development right now because the mistakes are costing us games. But the younger players are coming along very well.”
Niagara nows plays on the road against the Oshawa Hawkeyes on Saturday, July 27 in the B Cup semifinals.
“They are 2-6 and a decent team. They have had their struggles like we have and I think it will be a close game but winnable for us,” Martin said.
It’s a chance for redemption and spot in the B Cup finals in Kitchener.
“It’s the playoffs right now. It’s a new season and a clean slate. Hopefully we can clean up our mistakes and put forth a really good effort in the playoffs.”
BANTAM SPEARS
The Niagara Spears bantam football closed out the regular season with a 47-13 road loss to Burlington.
Niagara finished the regular season with a 2-6 record.
“Unfortunately we started slow giving up four touchdowns in the first quarter which makes it very tough to win a football game,” Niagara head coach Troy Herbert said. “However, I pleased that the team kept working hard.”
Spencer McRae stripped the ball from Burlington and ran it back 70 yards for one Spears touchdown and the other came on a run from Angelo Chukwu, who finished the game with 98 rushing yards. Noah Roller added an extra point.
Kelvin Johnson, Liam Cook and Tristan Herbert had strong outings on defence with Tristan Herbert recording a fumble recovery for Niagara.
“It wasn’t the game we had hoped for but we will learn from the mistakes. We will work hard over the next two weeks as we prepare for our first-round playoff game against Oakville,” he said. “We will be looking to redeem ourselves for our Week 1 loss to Oakville.”
