Niagara Generals take Tier 1 bantam title
When the Ontario Football League Tier 1 bantam playoffs kicked off, the Niagara Generals were among the underdogs not expected to stick around all that long.
When the championship final wrapped up Saturday night in Cambridge, they emerged as the top dog scoring a 33-0 victory over the Vaughan Rebels.
Niagara didn’t play like a team that entered the title game against the Vaughan Rebels, 8-3, with a losing record 5-6.
“Our team peaked at the right time of year,” interim head coach Dan Steele said. “When the playoffs started, no one was really giving us a change and our boys responded very well to the underdog roll.”
Throughout the regular season and in the playoffs the Generals were reminded to stay focused on finishing strong.
“We talked all playoffs about it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish and last night was an amazing finish to our Generals season,” Steele said.
Niagara excelled on both sides of the ball, scoring five touchdowns on offence and intercepting two passes on defence.
“The D barely bent and the O moved the ball at will,” head coach Greg Beilby said.
Justin Savoie, who rushed for two touchdowns, and quarterback Jackson Stewart, who passed for one touchdown and ran in another, shared offensive player of the game honours for the Generals.
Wyatt Bezuyen, Aiden Dubcek and Quinn Johnston were singled out for their standout play on defence.
Nick Longo, who connected with Stewart on the scoring strike and added a two-point conversion, Jack Wilson, who rushed for a touchdown, and Ryan Broome, extra point, also put points on the board for Niagara.
Lucas Hazelton and Johnston each had one interception and Broome recovered a fumble.