Season winds down
Fort Erie bantams, West Niagara peewees head into regular season finales undefeated
And then there were two. The previously undefeated Fort Erie J& A Athletics Longhorns dropped a 38-36 division to close out the Niagara Regional Minor Football Association atom division regular season with a 6-1-1 record.
Last Sunday’s loss at Westlane Secondary School in Niagara Falls reduced the number of defeated teams in the four-down, 12-per-side league to two.
The bantam Fort Erie KLIX Photography Longhorns improved to 8-0 with a victory over the West Niagara Home Hardware Steelers 4918, and, in the peewee ranks, West Niagara Pneu Hyde Falcons extended their season-long winning streak to seven games with a 46-12 win over the St. Catharines Paul’s Kids Seahawks.
The regular season in all three divisions wraps up Sunday with tripleheaders at Kiwanis Field in St. Catharines and at the Leisureplex in Smithville.
Action at Kiwanis Field kicks off with a 9:30 a.m. atom game pitting the Welland Super Mario’s Pizza Tigers at the St. Catharines Seahawks. Two hours later it’s the Welland Port Colborne Optimist Club Tiger-Cats against the St. Catharines Paul’s Kids Seahawks, and following that, starting at 1:30 p.m., the Longhorns versus the Niagara Barron Roofing Titans.
Week 9 games in Smithville: atom, Lions at West Niagara R. Bailey Transport Steelers, 9:30 a.m.; bantam, Niagara Falls Condotta Merritt Insurance Argonauts at Falcons, 11:30 a.m.; bantam, Niagara Falls Legion Branch 51 Argonauts playing the Steelers, 1:30 p.m.
Longhorns 49, Steelers 18
Mason Arbic, with four touchdowns; Kaiden Craft, touchdown, three converts; Anthony Gomez, touchdown, two-point conversion; Drew Beam, touchdown; and Jackson Louws, two, two-point conversions; scored for Fort Erie’s bantam entry in the neutral-site win at Westlane.
Justin Dawe, William Ervin and Malachi Tempeny each scored a touchdown as West Niagara fell to 1-7 in league play.
Argonauts 27, Titans 0
At Kiwanis Field, Niagara Falls completed a sweep of the combined Welland and St. Catharines combined bantam entry three games to none.
Elijah Dappin, Lucas Fiore, Aiden Maxim and Tristan Russell, with one touchdown apiece; Own Twose, two-point conversion; Arden Martinez, convert; scored for the Argos, who improved to 5-3.
The Titans fell to 2-6.
Falcons 46, Seahawks 12
In peewee play at Kiwanis Field, West Niagara improved to 7-0 thanks to scoring from Nolan Banga, Jayden Gurzi MacDonald, Ryden Lapcevich, two touchdowns each; Lucas Hazelton, touchdown; and Alex Beauvais.
Jayc MacArthur recovered two fumbles to lead the Falcons on defence.
Quinn Johnston and Jackson Stewart each scored a touchdown for St. Catharines, 4-3.
Argonauts 34, Longhorns 16
Carson Gauthier scored two touchdowns, Tyrell Kelman, Rickie Moodie, Carter Yott one each and Connor Driscoll two, two-point converts each as Niagara Falls improved to 4-3 in peewee league play.
Fort Erie, which fell to 2-6, got one touchdown each from Andre Hoffman and Nick Lemaire and two, two-point conversions from Alec Kosinski.
Lions 38, Longhorns 36
Scoring for the Niagara Falls atoms, 5-2: Austin McCray, three touchdowns; Shaheen Shirzadi, two touchdowns, convert; Marco Angelucci, touchdown, convert. Scoring for Fort Erie, 6-1-1: Jordan Payne, three touchdowns; Grant Spada, two touchdowns, two field goals.
Steelers 9, Seahawks 0
Scoring for the West Niagara atoms, 5-1-1: Jake Portolesi, touchdown; Franklin McPherson, field goal. Scoring for St. Catharines, 1-6: no scoring.