‘Close-knit unit’ heads to Champs Day
The Peterborough junior varsity Wolverines have steamrolled their way to the Ontario Football Conference championship game.
The Wolverines continued an unbeaten season, capturing the OFC’s Ramsay Division title with a 49-7 win over the Huronia Stallions Saturday afternoon at Thomas A. Stewart Athletic Field.
It clinches a berth in the OFC Champs Day final against the Dittmer Division champion Brantford Bisons to be hosted for the first time in Wolverines history at TASSS at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The field will also host the bantam and senior varsity championship games at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.
The JVs are the fifth Wolverines team to reach Champs Day but the organization is still looking for its first league championship.
“We’re so proud of the boys,” said JV head coach and Wolverines president Ken Butcher. “They’ve had the drive to do it all year long and we’re back in the championship after a couple of years. This is a team that could win it all and has a shot to win the first provincial championship for the Peterborough Wolverines.”
It could have been a much closer game if not for three Wolverines interceptions when Huronia was in striking distance, two in the first half before Peterborough’s offence got untracked.
Kyle Milburn scored two of his three touchdowns on similar five yard runs to put Peterborough in front 14-0 in the first quarter. Spencer Vesnaver converted all seven Wolverines’ majors.
“That score wasn’t indicative of how close it was especially in the first half,” said Butcher. “There were a few breaks here and there and we had some timely interceptions to stop some long drives they were having. Otherwise it could have been a different ball game. Hat’s off to Huronia. They came to play.”
“That’s when we needed to score,” said Stallions coach Martino DiSabatino. “It’s all about field position and we had positive field position. We were 3-0 against them and got nothing and that’s when it switched. They started scoring when they had field position and that turned the game.”
DiSabatino said he has a young team that will be better for the experience.
“(Peterborough) was bigger and stronger than us and they pushed us around,” he said. “When that happens you try to pull everything you can out of your pockets, hats, underwear, but it didn’t work. That’s what they tried to do. I give them credit. They did exactly what got them here. They just played smash mouth football.”
Mack McFarlane scored on a 21-yard run in the second quarter before Huronia’s Matt Koufis scored on a one-yard plunge converted by William McCulloch for a 21-7 halftime score.
Milburn scored on a four-yard run on the Wolverines’ first possession of the second half. Huronia marched the ball to the Wolverines’ eightyard line only to miss two passes into the end-zone. McFarlane scored on a 75-yard punt return with 2:49 left in the third quarter making it 35-7.
“It feels great,” said McFarlane, of reaching the final. “The last time I was in it (three years ago) we had to go out of town. This year I don’t think we can get too cocky because the other team is great. We just have to keep working.”
A 45-yard run by Milburn set up a 27-yard rumble by McFarlane. The final TD was on Isaac Clark’s 65-yard interception return with 4:26 left.
Butcher says a key to the team’s success is how close they are as a group.
“They’re a really close-knit unit. I really can’t say enough about them. They play as a team. We have a lot of great individual players but they play as a unit all the time on all sides of the ball. This is a team sport and you need that.”