Playoffs open with play-in games for semifinals
Fort Erie bantams, West Niagara peewees end minor football regular season undefeated
Minor football’s second season kicks off today with qualifying-round action in the atom and peewee divisions.
Winners of the 6 p.m. games at Crystal Ridge Community Centre in Fort Erie, peewee; and Westlane Secondary School in Niagara Falls, atom; advance to the semifinals Sunday at Kiwanis Field in St. Catharines.
Super Sunday, when overall and consolation championships will be crowned in all three age groups, will held Aug. 13, also on the turf at Kiwanis Field.
Top three teams in Niagara Regional Minor Football Association’s atom division each earned a bye into the semifinals, as did the top three in peewee.
Only the four-team bantam division did not need a qualifying round to determine semifinal matchups.
Tonight’s atom qualifier at Westlane, between the St. Catharines Seahawks and Welland Super Mario’s Pizza Tiger-Cats, is a rematch of Sunday’s regular-season finale in St. Catharines.
Braiden Genest scored two touchdowns and Evan McCue one as the Seahawks tamed the Ticats 18-8 to close out league play fourth in the division with a 2-6 record.
Ben Tsanoff, with one touchdown; Liam Herries, two-point conversion; scored for the Welland atoms, the league’s only winless team at 0-8.
Winner advances to play the 6-1-1 Fort Erie J& A Athletics Longhorns in the semifinal round.
The West Niagara R. Bailey Transport Steelers, 5-1-2; take on the Niagara Falls E-Quip Rentals Lions, 5-2-1; in the other atom semifinal Sunday.
The teams played to a 33-33 draw at the Leisureplex in Smithville to wrap up the regular season.
Scoring for the Lions: Austin McCrae, two touchdowns, three, onepoint converts; Blake McKinnon, touchdown; Sh a he en Shir ar di, touchdown. Scoring for the Steelers: Jake Fortolesi, three touchdowns; Johnny Breen, touchdown; Josh Phillipe, touchdown; Franklin McPherson, field goal.
Peewee
The peewee play-in game at Crystal Ridge pits the visiting Welland Port Colborne Optimist neutral-site game pitting the Welland Port Colborne Optimist Club Tiger-Cats, 1-7; against the Fort Erie Golden Horseshoe Footcare & Apparel Longhorns, 2-6.
Awaiting the winner in Sunday’s semifinals will be the relatively rested West Niagara Pneu Hyde Falcons, who topped the division with an 8-0 record.
The other peewee semifinal has the second-place St. Catharines Paul’s Kids Seahawks, 5-3; lining against the third-seeded Niagara Falls Condotta Merritt Insurance Argonauts, 4-4.
Fort Erie ended the regular with its bye week, while Welland dropped a 44-26 decision on the road to the St. Catharines Paul’s Kids Seahawks on the final weekend of the regular season.
Leading St. Catharines in scoring were Quinn Johnston, rushed for two touchdowns, and Jackson Stewart, who passed for one touchdown and ran for another. Justin Savoie, rushing; Jack Wilson, receiving; and Nolan Wyers, rushing; also made their way into the end zone for the Seahawks.
Wilson also recovered an onside kick, and Ethan Barrow and Cameron Newbold anchored the St. Catharines defence with 11 and eight tackles, respectively.
Patrick Scully and Nicholas Longo, two touchdowns each; and Thomas Williamson, two-point conversion; accounted for the Welland scoring.
Sunday’s other peewee game in league play saw the Falcons blank the visiting Argos 40-0 to end the season undefeated.
Lucas Hazelton, with two touchdowns, ; Nolan Banga, touchdown; Jayden Gurzi-MacDonald, touchdown; Mikey Pegg, touchdown; and Ryan Broome, five converts; scored for West Niagara.
Bantam
Mason Arbic scored four touchdowns and teammate Anthony Gomez as the visiting Fort Erie KLIX Sports Photography Longhorns tripled the Niagara Barron Roofing Titans 36-12 to close out bantam league play 9-0.
Kaiden Craft had two, two-point conversions for the Longhorns.
Sacade Kasamba, with touchdowns; found the end zone for the Titans, who fell to 2-7.
Niagara Falls’ bantam entry in the four-down, 12-per-side league, the Legion Branch 51 Argonauts ended the regular season 6-3 with a 62-51 victory over the West Niagara Home Hardware Steelers.
JoshTropea,sixtouchdowns;Damien Bawlby, two touchdowns; Elijah Dappin, touchdown; Marshall McCray and Tristan Russell, two, twopoint converts apiece; scored for Niagara Falls. James Vandenberg, four touchdowns; Justin Dawe, touchdown; Jordan Hvozda, touchdown; Josh Keizer, touchdown; Malachi Tempeny, touchdown; Holden Aarlaht, two converts; Evan Reece, convert; scored for West Niagara.
Sunday’s bantam semifinal schedule: Steelers at Longhorns, 5 p.m.; Titans at Argonauts, 7 p.m., both at Kiwanis Field.