With all of the elite teams across Canada
present, save for our far western friends (yes you Vancouver, not the
same without you), the “AA” division for the 2003 “Tournament
Of Champions” was in fine form. Twelve teams stormed the Nations
Capital, all seeking football dominance. We’ll start our recap
with the quarter finals.
The Burlington Spartans edged out the
always dangerous Almonte Hellcats 23 to14, The Burlington Piranhas rolled
past The Winnipeg Assassins 35 to 22, The Ottawa Nepean Canadians blew
past the very tired Burlington Ravens (9 players, great job making it
this far fellas!!) and The Hamilton Blue Devils squeaked past the Montreal
GMP Monsters 36 to 33. The Blue Devil/Monster game, due to darkness,
had to be moved to a lit field. It was quite the sight, so I was told,
as over a dozen vehicles followed each other to the next park. Both
teams would go on to turn over the ball a few times and score a handful
of touchdowns within mere minutes of each other towards the end of the
match, making this one of the craziest games to date. Anyone who saw
this game will tell you what a bizarre outcome it came to be.
On Monday morning, four hungry teams
and two semi final match-ups remained. The Spartans continued their
momentum, handing their Toronto area rivals, The Blue Devils, a 33 to
6 send off. The Canadians continued their Piranha dominance, handing
the talented Burlington crew a 27 to 6 “shellacking”. It
should be noted that two outstanding Piranha players, Jay Green and
Andy Wells stayed home as their wives were giving birth to their newborns.
We wish you and your families all of the best!!
Despite the influx of participants outside
of Ontario, the focus of this division fell squarely on the Burlington
Spartan/Ottawa Nepean Canadian rivalry. After going undefeated last
year, The Canadians had been unable to land a victory over the improved
Spartans during the 2003 campaign. The Canadians had one last chance
as they and the Spartans met up in our "Elite" final.
When two teams know each other like these
two do, certain players need to elevate their level of game play to
make the difference in an outcome. No-one rose to the occasion more
than Canadians stalwart, Leo Benvenuti. Pulling in three interceptions,
tripled with countless knockdowns and first down catches, Leo showed
the football community why he has been long considered as the best touch
football player in Canada. Though you can’t look past the contributions
of his teammates, you’d be silly to think that the Canadians could
have won this Championship without the exceptional play of Leo. With
the exploits of their inspirational leader, The Canadians would go on
to squeak past the Spartans 19 to 14 to win their second consecutive
National Championship. Congratulations Gentlemen!! Canadian's coach
Pat Sterling shared a few words with us regarding his team's success
at the Tournament Of Champions.
Back to Back Champs
The weather was near perfect! The fields
were great! The organizers did a marvelous job. This would truly turn
out to be a Tournament Of Champions.
In the preliminary play each pool featured
intense games with a few close scores and some startling upsets to the
Mustangs and Jets. In pool D, Pat Miller had his high scoring Burlington
Ravens average 35 points per game in their first three matches but lost
two of them. They did however surprise the fourth ranked Jets by a score
of 34-25. In pool C the fifth ranked Mustangs were outscored by the
eleventh ranked Blue Devils and then lost 28-27 to the speedy Winnipeg
Eagles.
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Prelims- Winnipeg Assassins 29 vs Winnipeg
Eagles 6
Prelims- Almonte Hellcats 23 vs Toronto
Landell Jets 22
Prelims- Gator Ted Blue Devils 30 vs
Toronto Trojans 12
Prelims- Burlington Ravens 36 vs Montreal
Patriots 22
Quarters- T.Litzen Spartans 23 vs Hellcats
14
Quarters- Burlington Piranhas 35 vs Assassins
22
Quarters- Ottawa Canadians 31 vs Ravens
6
Quarters- Blue Devils 36 vs Mtl GMP Monsters
33
Semi Finals- Spartans 33 vs Blue Devils
6
Semi Finals- Canadians 27 vs Piranhas
6
Finals- Canadians 19 vs Spartans 16
ELITE CHAMPIONS
