MacNab beats Westmount to earn a second straight senior football title
SIR ALLAN MACNAB 13, WESTMOUNT 12
As winter’s advance troops attacked Ron Joyce Stadium Thursday afternoon, the Sir Allan MacNab Lions survived the crushing defence of the Westmount Wildcats to win their second successive city public schools football championship.
The Lions, renowned for a prodigious and quick-strike offence run by quarterback Quincy Vaughn, won the Feline Bowl 13-12 to stop the Wildcats just short of winning their first senior boys’ title in 30 years.
Vaughn, rolling right on third down and goal at the Westmount five-yard line hit Eric Faubert deep in the end zone for the winning touchdown which gave MacNab its only lead of the game with just over three minutes to play.
“I knew our team could do it,” said Vaughn, who is still only in Grade 11, “We always pull through.”
The winning throw came into a bitter west wind which sent temperatures into a free fall and brought a little frigid rain to open the second half.
The wind and the cold played a role in a mistake-filled game. MacNab, for instance, fumbled the opening kickoffs of both halves, the first giving Westmount a 7-0 lead on Nate Bullock’s recovery in the end zone eight seconds into the game.
The Lions also turned the ball over on downs four times.
The winning score was precipitated by the Wildcats’ quick kick gamble on second and long from their own 11-yard line. It was recovered by the Lions and five plays later it was Vaughn to Faubert.
“We thought we might catch them and gain some ground,” said Westmount coach Tom Pain. “That’s my fault, I should have called something else then given up the safety and they would have had a longer field to go. And our defence was playing great.”
And this will haunt Westmount players and coaching staff for a long time: even after the Faubert touchdown, the game was in their hands but they fumbled three times, including twice in the final 90 seconds.
“I can’t explain how that game finished,” said MacNab head coach Bruce Hitchcock who, with retirement looming, will coach his final season in 2018. “They had three turnovers in three possessions. They had the ball at centre field and they have a good kicker (Thomas Turner).
“I feel really bad for those guys. They played well and they had a really great game plan. They shut down our quarterback, they played the run beautifully, they jammed our inside receivers. I’m proud to say we came out on top but I’m really proud to say they played great too.”
His opposite number agreed that the Wildcat defence kept putting the Wildcats into good position to win the championship. But, as in the schedule-ending 23-17 loss to the Lions, turnovers got in the way.
“He’s an outstanding quarterback and we have a great young quarterback, too (Grade 11 student Seth Cabezas),” Pain says. “But you can’t mistakes like we did and survive it. The kids battled hard to the very end, and it’s hard to take right now.”
MacNab advances to meet Caledonia’s McKinnon Park Blue Devils in the SOSSA semifinal next Wednesday at 1 p.m. at McMaster. The winner of that game goes to the SOSSA final Tuesday, Nov. 21 at McMaster.