Patriots Defeat Churchill Bulldogs 45-21
By Bonnie Chen
It isn't every year a team is given a second chance in the championships against the same team who defeated them the year before. The Division 2 HWDSB Football Championships was played at Ivor Wynne on Thursday November 13th with first ranked team, Orchard Park, and second ranked team, Sir Winston Churchill. Both of these schools entered this championship game with 6-1 regular season records.
During the regular season, the Patriots were defeated by Westmount 17-7, however, redeemed themselves by beating them in the semi-finals, 17-5. On the other hand, Churchill was defeated by Orchard Park 37-0, which proved to be Churchill's first loss in two years. Fans questioned whether or not Churchill was "out of their element" that game, or if Orchard Park won with a lot more than luck.
Although the weather was cold, each half of the stadium filled up with fans from both schools. This was the game each athlete anticipated when the season began. This was the game to prove which team wanted to take home the gold.
Before the game, defensive end, Derek Bergstrand of Orchard Park said: "We need to forget about our victory against the Bulldogs two weeks ago to defeat them tonight. You can't win a game based on previous results and stats so it becomes a game where the team has to perservere mentally."
During the first half, Orchard Park's defensive line struggled to keep the Bulldogs away from their end zone allowing Churchill to have an early lead in the game. With the 7-0 score, Mathew Kit tied up the game for the Patriots with O.P's first touchdown. The back and forth scores continued as Churchill surpassed the Patriots defense once more. However, Jacob Kit picked up Churchill's fumble from their kickoff and tied up the game for Orchard Park. As the score rose to 14-14, the Patriots received another touchdown with a quarterback sneak by Zack Gray. Shortly afterwards, the Bulldogs returned the favour and ran into the Patriots end zone for the third time making the score tied at 21-21. This nail-biting game continued with great plays by both teams. Orchard Park's, Matt Pettie, gave his team the lead with a field goal as the second half of the game approached.
The score was 24-21 as both teams proved how badly they wanted this title. Although the Bulldogs could not score again on the Patriots strong defensive line, Orchard Park's offensive line continued to excel. Carlin McLean scored a touchdown and Mathew Kit added on two more during the second half to give Orchard Park a solid lead. As two minutes appeared on the scoreboard and the Orchard Park fans sang goodbye to the Bulldogs, the crowd knew that the Patriots had secured the win with a score of 45-21.
The team poured water on head coach, Morealle, as the final whistle blew.
Quarterback, Zack Gray said: "I'm glad we had the chance to redeem ourselves from last year. I think we really proved who the tougher and stronger team is. The game plan was to run them over, and we did."
The fans crowded the team on the field and continued to cheer as the boys received their medals for their well-deserved win.
Fullback, Colin Cyr stated that, "Everything was perfect tonight. It cleared up nicely and the fan support was unreal. The team worked unbelievably hard this year and we definitely deserved this. I think that everyone on this years team bonded with each other better than any other year I've played so far and it most definitely showed on the field."
Tight end, Aleks Januzovic added, "It was a great season. We worked hard everyday and it paid off in the end."
The entire team is congratulated for their victory against the Churchill Bulldogs in this championship game. Great plays were made by Derek Bergstrand with a quaterback sack, Bobby Dhaliwal with an interception, as well as Nathan Smith, Cody Cort, Cody Wright, Nikolas Cucuz, Kody Taylor and Money Gill.
Gill said: "The support from our coaches and our fans truly brought us through this season, especially winning this championship. All the bumps and bruises along the way have not gone forgotten but our desire to win the championship was unstoppable. We fought strong, we fought with heart, and we won."
Bobby Dhaliwal also said, "This win definitely feels better than last year's championship game. There are no words to describe how it feels to win. It still hasn't hit me yet but tonight proved that anything is possible."
Runningback, Carlin McLean said: "Most of our seniors at O.P have never won a football championship since they've been in high school. We knew if we didn't win today it would take so much to win again. We knew this was the year that we had to win."
As the football season comes to an end, the Patriots have much to be proud for as they are now the Division 2 Champions of the city.
Recent Comments