Wolfpack tackle Tier 2 football crown
In two plays Thursday night, Kylen Azem-Simmons put the West Niagara Wolfpack well on their way to a victory over the Governor Simcoe Redcoats in the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Tier 2 football final at Governor Simcoe.
With his team leading 7-0 halfway through the second quarter, Azem-Simmons had a sack which forced Simcoe to punt from its own 20-yard line. He received said punt and ran it back 40 yards for major and the Wolfpack was on its way to a 22-1 victory.
“He is a super athlete, a Spears kid in the summer playing halfback on the varsity team,” West Niagara head coach Zack Silverthorne said. “He’s a great competitor and you can just tell that he loves the game. He’s physical and could probably play at the next level. He had a big game for us and returning that kick was nice.”
Azem-Simmons is a relative newcomer to football.
“My cousin (Xavier Zatylny) got me into the sport in Grade 11 and ever since I played in the first practice I just loved it so my friends and I went out and trained every summer.”
He arrived at football late because of another sport.
“My dad was a big hockey fan and I grew up playing hockey. I played flag football in the summer but that was about it.”
The 18-year-old Grimsby resident is planning to go into the trades and is looking to continue his football career in the Canadian Junior Football League with either the Hamilton Hurricanes or the London Beefeaters.
But the 5-foot-9, 165 pounder hasn’t discounted post-secondary ball just yet.
“University would be great and I am trying really hard in school right now.”
Silverthorne was pleased with his team’s victory.
“Winning is always good. The format is what it is.”
He knew Simcoe wasn’t going to be a pushover in the game.
“I have watched them a couple of times and I knew defensively that they were going to be rock solid. I think I coached six of them in the summer with the (Junior Varsity) Spears and they all can play. They all can flow to the ball and they all can tackle.”
The winning was a good way to erase the disappointment of a 1-4 Tier 1 regular season for West Niagara.
“We lost by one in overtime, we lost by one in double overtime, we lost by five and the nature of the beast at our school is that we are not very big. For whatever reason, we top out at 230 (pounds) so we go to Fort Erie, Myer and Centennial and we are outweighed,” Silverthorne said. “But sometimes it’s about matchups and today our speed was a factor.”
The Tier 2 title represents the first football crown for West Niagara.
“A championship is a championship and we will take it. I still can’t believe seven touchdowns were called back today,” he said. “Another thing is we don’t have one transfer player. We don’t have one player who is not from our district that isn’t supposed to go to our school and we pride ourselves on playing with who we got.”
Azem-Simmons described the first championship as crazy.
“It’s a great experience for everyone. We beat these guys in 2021 and we wanted to come back and show them that we could do it again and we did,” he said. “Everyone is pretty hyped.”
Azem-Simmons felt other teams weren’t expecting the Wolfpack to win the championship.
“We were 1-4 and everyone was showing us up in Tier 1 so everyone thought when we came down to Tier 2 there were going to show us up as well. It was great that everyone got to prove themselves.”
Simcoe went unbeaten in Tier 2 play this season, outscoring its opposition 173-26, and then defeated relegated Tier 1 Westlane 32-6 in the semifinals, before meeting their match in the final against West Niagara.
“We played hard and had a couple of injuries but they are a really good football team on both sides of the ball,” Simcoe head coach Jamie Brophy said. “We couldn’t really create too much on offence and our defence made some stops at times which was great but they spread the ball around really well and they have a really good quarterback.”
The loss took nothing away from what has been a great season for the Redcoats.
“We only lose five players off a roster of 52 and we only had five Grade 12s where we played a solid team today that was made of just senior football players,” he said. “It made it tough for us but it looks really good for the future of Redcoats football.”
STATS PACK
Wolfpack 22 Redcoats 1
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: West Niagara’s Kylen Azem-Simmons with two TDs and a sack
For the West Niagara Wolfpack: Azem-Simmons, 40-yard punt return TD, 18-yard TD catch from Xavier Zatylny and a sack; seven-yard TD pass from Zatylny to Kieran McDonald; single point by Ty Keller on missed field goal; sacks by Tye Rutkowsky and Hudson Frlan; interception by Ryan Churchill; Zatylny, 12-18 passing for 162 yards; Alex Suntz, 11 carries for 107 yards.
For the Governor Simcoe Redcoats: single point on punt by Aidan Mitchell; sack by Lucas Landry; fumble recovery by Nathan Vandermeer
Game stats: First downs: WN 14, GS 2. Net offensive yards: WN 317, GS 8. Turnovers: WN 2, GS 2. Penalties: WN 19 for 175 yards, GS 4 for 30 yards.
