Hurricanes hang on to win OFC title game
It was the classic tableau of the nail-biting finish. One team pouring onto the field stumbling all over each other in relieved ecstasy, the other immobilized in fresh, frustrated grief.
When the Windsor AKO Fratmen’s final desperation drive died along with the game clock, just a few agonizing yards from the end zone, the Hamilton Hurricanes won the Ontario Football Conference title game 28-23 over the defending champions.
“For once, a Windsor-Hamilton final turned out to be a classic,” said Hurricanes head coach Jason Hayes, who has coached the team he once quarterbacked to a second OFC title win over the Fratmen in the past three years.
“There have been some blowouts before, but both teams deserved to win today. We each had our chances to separate ourselves but the other team kept making plays, hanging around. And we made the last one at the end: I’m proud of our kids.”
The victory in the riveting provincial junior-age league finale Sunday afternoon at Tim Hortons Field sends the 10-0 Hurricanes to Langley, B.C., next Saturday to play the west coast champion Rams. The winner of that game advances to the Canadian Bowl against the Hilltops in Saskatoon on Nov. 17.
“I give credit to Windsor,” said Hamilton quarterback Jake Marquette, the league’s offensive player of the year who played the last home game of his stellar junior career.
“They had us a couple of times, but there are too many stars on our team. There was too much on the line for our team not to win.”
Hayes called Marquette the best player in the history of the Hurricanes franchise.
Marquette was good on 13-of-20 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown, spreading the action around his receiving corps. Teammate Jayden Hyland piled up 113 rushing yards.
The game also featured the probable next great OFC quarterback in Windsor’s 18-year-old Colton Allen, who was 28-for-43 for 338 yards and a touchdown. His favourite target, Jared Hayes-Williams (12 receptions, 147 yards) is still in high school and will also be around the league for a few more years.
After falling behind early, the Hurricanes got long first-half touchdowns from each of their defensive, offensive and special teams. Massive 270-pound defensive end Tim Salau retrieved an Allen fumble forced by Zachary Hoffner and rambled 73 yards for the game-tying major, followed by a 36yard scoring reception from Jevante Stanley and a 60-yard return touchdown by Jay Anyimadu. But Windsor’s Branden McCraney then took the ensuing kickoff to the house.
“When I looked behind me all I saw was yellow (Windsor) sweaters,” Salau said of his pivotal TD. “I never ran so fast in my entire life. This is a dream come true. With my story, I never thought this could happen.”
Salau, from a Nigerian family, went to Columbia International College but didn’t play football. He was a thirdyear walk-on at McMaster but was only on the practice roster, so he played the first competitive games of his life only upon joining the ’Canes.
The Hurricanes, who led 21-17 at the half, are undefeated in their 10 regular-season and playoff games. But this one wasn’t easy.
Windsor, down 28-17, scored a touchdown with 54 seconds left, but missed the important two-point convert attempt. Then, after a penalty induced a second chance, recovered the kickoff and marched toward the red zone. Allen’s last pass was complete, but the Hurricanes felled the receiver a handful of yards in front of the Hamilton end zone as the clock arrived at three zeros.
Windsor coach Mike LaChance felt his team was hurt by a couple of late non-calls but said, “Hamilton played really well and they deserved to win.”
A postgame verbal skirmish between exiting Fratmen players and loud Hurricanes’ fans quickly dissipated. The action in this game was all on the field, and there was plenty of it.