Fresh off an undefeated 2002 campaign, The Ottawa Nepean Canadians, 2002 unit intact, looked to maintain their Trillium dominance. Though their path towards that goal started off that way, it ended differently. The Burlington Spartans regrouped from a semi final defeat in the Early Bird (to Landell), defeating the Canadians in a very close 32 to 28 decision. Spartan Captain/Team manager/Outright Legend, Dave Thompson, shared a few words with us reagarding his thoughts on the St Catharines affair…

Dave Thompson with Cliff Bartsch

Hi Gordie:

Of course we were happy to win, although our focus is always to try to win the last event of the year.

We played great on Sunday, having to go through Landell and the Piranhas to advance to the final. Both of these teams are playing well as evidenced by their Early Bird results.

Anytime you beat the Canadians, it is a big win. They are again the team to beat this year. It is especially nice to stop a win streak, especially since they were gunning to topple a Spartan consecutive game winning streak from years gone by.

Our increased depth [i.e. youth] and improved team speed helped us. We had good numbers and were fresh to play a long game in the final, even after playing 5 games beforehand.

In the final, we fell behind 14-0 quickly, but our D tightened and Rob was able to regain his focus to overcome the early deficit and lead us to victory.

It looks like it will be a bit more of a dogfight at the top this year. I think that we have improved, as have the Piranhas the Blue Devils and Landell. I cannot comment on the other top Ottawa teams, like the Mustangs or you as I have not seen you play yet.

Regards,


Dave

Please see pictures of the Champions/Finalists below including game mvp's. As well, please see a run down of the scores from the quarter finals and on...

Quarter Finals- ONC 33 vs Almonte 13

Quarter Finals- Piranhas 36 vs Frogs 13

Quarter Finals- Spartans 29 vs LAndell Jets 0

Quarter Finals Blue Devils 34 vs P.G. Legends 6

Semi Finals- ONC 37 vs BLue Devils 15

Semi Finals Saprtans 30 vs Piranhas 20

Championship Game- Spartans 32 vs ONC 28

Tier One Champions

Click each to enlarge

Tier One Finalists

GAME MVP's

click each to enlarge