With all of our tier one
teams present for the Labor Day classic the competition was at its best.
Would the Spartans retain their number one status? Would the Piranhas
make the next leap? Or would The Canadians regain their place at the
top of Ontario?? We’ll start our Tier One recap with the quarterfinals.
Bitter rivals, The Ottawa
Mustangs and Ottawa Nepean Canadians, took to the field first. In this
one, the Mustangs held a 6 to 0 lead going into the half and found themselves
in front of the mighty ONC (18 to 15) with only minutes left. A few
minutes was all that Canadians quarterback Rod Moors needed as he drove
his crew downfield to score a touchdown on the very last play to win.
Though this game had a few controversial moments, the end result was
a spectacular game to watch. With Trojan qb taking on some of his old
Spartan teammates, the stage was set for a good match up. Though the
Trojans have come a long way, The Spartans proved to be to strong, as
they handed them a 28 to 7 decision. The Piranhas and The Almonte Hellcats
played in our third quarterfinal game. In what turned out to be one
“hell” of an offensive showcase, The Piranhas came out on
top, squeaking past the up surging Hellcats 35 to 32. Our last quarterfinal
saw the Landell Jets firing on all cylinders as they handed the Burlington
Ravens a 34 to 23 send off.
For our first semi final
match up, we focus on the Canadian/Spartan rivalry. The Canadians only
lost three games on the tour this year, though all three came at the
hands of the Spartans. The Canadians were eager to end their Spartan
jinx as they took them on in the semi final. When two teams play as
intensely as these two did, injuries are bound to occur. Two Canadian
players (Mark Thompson & Leon Ritchins) converged on a Rob Houston
Pass, resulting in one of the nastiest collisions that Ontario footballers
have ever seen, or heard, in quite some time. Both players suffered
painful injuries with Leon suffering the worst. On behalf of Touch Football
Ontario, I’d like to wish speedy recoveries to both of you!! The
Spartans would go on to hand the Canadians their 4th consecutive defeat
of their 2003 rivalry, and advance to the final game.
Our other semi final saw
the Piranhas and the Jets go at it. The Piranhas kept their offensive
machine rolling as they cruised past the Toronto Speedsters, 46 to 22.
2003 was definitely a breakthrough
year for the Burlington Piranhas. Heading into the weekend, The Piranhas
had two titles and the number two seed (both firsts for this club) under
their belts. Playing in the final game at the Provincials was just another
first for this athletic bunch. No strangers to the big stage, the Spartans
looked to ensure that the Piranhas wouldn’t have another first,
winning the Provincial crown. Though I was playing in the “A”
final on the other field, I was able to catch the last 5 minutes or
so of this exciting Championship game. With the Spartans in The Piranha
red zone and leading by seven, hopes of a Piranha comeback looked grim.
That is until Alex Hutton, son of legendary QB Barry Hutton (former
Spartan pivot), picked off Robby in the end zone to give his team a
chance at victory. With minutes left and the ball in the hands of the
explosive QB Jason Hayes, the Piranhas looked destined for glory. The
Spartans had ideas of their own however. Tightening their already tight
defense, The Spartans halted any Piranha response, capturing their first
Provincial crown since 1994. Congratulations to both teams for putting
on such a nice display of competitive ball. Spartan GM Dave Thompson
shared a few words with us regarding his team’s success at the
provincials;
Hi Gordie:
Having not won an Ontario championship since 1994 [although
we have been finalists 4 times since then], we were very happy to ‘climb
that mountain’ so to speak this year. As a trivia question, we
have only 2 holdovers from that 1994 team, which should put to rest
the rumour that we do not have turnover.
In this years’ Trillium Cup, we had the rapidly rising
Kitchener Gaels, the improved Almonte Hellcats, and the always difficult
Playground Legends in our pool, three teams that we had not played during
the year.
In our first game, we overcame the young and athletic Gaels.
As a Football Ontario committee member, it was nice to see that our
tournament structure and point system worked well to reward this new
team as it played events. This team started in Tier 3 [ranked 42] in
the early Bird, and through their on-field results, they were able to
rise to be in the 16-team tier 1 draw at our provincial championship.
Our second game was against Almonte. Although the final result
was a 2 score win for us, the game was closer than that. Almonte provided
stiff competition for us, and later for the Piranhnas in their q-final
shoot-out.
As it turned out, with the Legends losing their first 2 games
on Saturday, our 3rd game did not affect the pool rankings. Nonetheless,
the game was contested and we were able to stop them at the end to secure
a win.
In our q-final, we met up with the improving Toronto Trojans.
In this game, our D was able to keep Runnie and their ‘O’
in Czech to lead us to a win.
A defeat by Landell in pool play moved the Ottawa Canadians
to our side of the draw to be our semi-final opponent. Our team concepts
are similar and most all of our games over the years have been tight,
with one play here and there leading to a win for one team or the other.
In this game, we were able to get 2 key fourth quarter stops to help
us come out of top by a score of 30-21. Although we have been successful
against them thus far this year, you can be assured that our next meeting
will again be a toss-up, with us hoping that ‘lady luck’
continues to be on our side.
In the final, we met up with the Piranhnas, another team from
the Burlington / Hamilton area that we know well. As expected, this
game was a back and forth offensive struggle until mid-way through the
3rd quarter, when the defenses stiffened to stop drives. In the end,
we came away with a 7point victory to capture the title.
The weather was great and the event seemed to run smoothly.
The tournament organizers should be commended, not only for this event,
but for the tournaments throughout the year.
Regards,
Dave
Thanks for your time Dave and congratulations
once again! Please see pictures of the champions, finalists and game
mvp's below. Click on their images to have them enlarged.
Quarter Finals- Ott Canadians
22 vs Ott Mustangs 18
Quarter Finals- Brlt Spartans
28 vs T.O. Trojans 7
Quarter Finals- Brlt Piranhas
35 vs Almt Hellcats 32
Quarter Finals- Landell
Jets 34 vs Brlt Ravens 23
Semi Finals- Spartans 30
vs Canadians 21
Semi Finals- Piranhas 46
vs LAndell Jets 22
Finals- Spartans 33 vs Piranhas
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