Atom, peewee players return to the gridiron
Niagara Falls teams kicked off the 2017 minor football regular season sweeping the competition with convincing wins.
Also starting league play undefeated were the Niagara Regional Minor Football Association’s representatives from West Niagara.
A quadruple-header Sunday on the turf at Kiwanis Field in St. Catharines got underway with the Niagara Falls W-Quip Rentals Lions taming the Welland TigerCats in 12-per-side, four-down atom action.
Austin MacRae scored a gamehigh three touchdowns for the Lions who also got points from Shaken Shizardi, one touchdown and a convert; and Enrique Herrera, one convert.
Everett Henauer, with two touchdowns; and Ben Tsanoff, one; found the end zone before the Ticats ran out of lives in the neutral-site game.
Niagara Falls’ peewee entry, the Conditti Merritt Insurance Argonauts, opened their season with a 32-18 victory over the Welland Port Colborne Optimist Club Tiger-Cats.
Ricky Moodie, three touchdowns; Tyrell Kelman, two TDs and a convert; and Matthew Chisholm, convert; scored for Niagara Falls, while Nick Longo, with two and Colton Kizlyk scored touchdowns for Welland .
The West Niagara Bailey Steelers played the Fort Erie J& A Athletics Longhorns to a 12-12 draw in Week 1’s other atom game.
West Niagara’s Johnny Breen and Fort Erie’s Grant Spada accounted for their team’s scoring with two touchdowns apiece.
Lucas Hazelton rushed for three touchdowns, Ryden Lapcevich for one and Nolan Banga was on the receiving end of a scoring strike from Jayden Gurzi-MacDonald as the West Niagara Pneu Hyde Falcons blanked the Fort Erie Golden Horseshoe Footcare & Apparel Longhorns 39-0.
Gurzi-MacDonald scored two extra points to round out the scoring.
David Robinson, with 10 tackles and a fumble recovery; Tyler Crawford, five tackles, fumble recovery; Shane Buchanan, three tackles, forced fumble; and Jayce MacArthur, eight tackles; were standouts on defence for the Steelers.
Both St. Catharines teams, the atom Seahawks and the peewee Paul’s Kids Seahawks, had byes and a full day of football wrapped up with a four-team bantam jamboree.
A full slate of games is on tap next Sunday with triple-headers taking place at Kiwanis Field and at Eastdale Secondary School in Welland.
Atom action has the Seahawks hosting the Lions in St. Catharines starting at 9:30 a.m. and Fort Erie visiting Welland, also at 9:30 a.m.
It will be the Argos at the Seahawks and the Longhorns at the Ticats in the 11:30 a.m. peewee games, with the bantams — Niagara Falls Legion Branch 51 Argos at West Niagara Home Hardware Steelers, Fort Erie Longhorns at theNiagara Barron Roofing Titans — taking the gridiron two hours later in St. Catharines in Welland, respectively.