Irish hope to add ‘ lion tamer’ to resume

Notre Dame playing Sir Allan MacNab Lions today for ticket to Golden Horseshoe Bowl

After sending the one band of Marauders home, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are now going to the home of another gang of Marauders.

Ron Joyce Stadium in Hamilton, home of the McMaster Marauders, is where the Irish hope to clear the second- last hurdle on their quest to end the senior high school football season with an Ontario championship.

Winner of today’s 1 p. m. kickoff between Notre Dame, the Niagara champion, and the Sir Allan MacHab Lions, the Hamilton representative, advances to the Golden Horseshoe Bowl Tuesday, Nov. 28, at Tim Hortons Stadium in Hamilton.

Both teams come into the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association ( SOSSA) Bowl with 9- 0 records and ranked among the top 20 teams in Canada.

The Irish, who upset the threetime defending Golden Horseshoe Bowl champion A. N. Myer Marauders 20- 13 last Wednesday in St. Catharines, are ranked 14th nationally. MacNab, 56- 48 winners over Caledonia’s McKinnon Park in the Hamilton and district final, are right behind in 15th place.

Notre Dame head coach Tim Bisci appreciates his team will do a lot if they hope to tame the Lions this afternoon.

“I know they got a quarterback ( Quincy Vaughan) who can throw the ball pretty well, they can put a lot of points up on the board,” Bisci said.

“Defensively, I think we match up well against them.

“Hopefully, we can put some points on the board. We’re going to have to be able to stop the pass against them.”

There are some question marks for Notre Dame on the injury front, though nothing out of the ordinary. Quarterback Brandon Graziani, who ran for the game- winning touchdown against Myer and was the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association offensive most valuable player this season, is still a little sore.

“And we have a couple of other guys who were a little banged up after the Myer game,” he said. “Hopefully, a little bit of rest over the weekend helped us out.”

The Irish have had three practices, including one Monday, and spent a day watching film since winning their first Niagara senior high school football championship in four years.

While the win over the seventhranked Myer was a big upset, Bisci isn’t anticipating a big letdown when the team returns to the field for its second must- win game in less than a week.

“No, I think we kind of got over that last week,” he said. “The fact that we’re pretty through the weekend put that away.

“We’re a pretty focused group so, hopefully, the kids see the prize at the end at the day rather than what was last week.”

Bisci, whose 2013 team upset the heavily favoured Lakeshore Catholic Gators for Notre Dame’s last Niagara championship, said he isn’t feeling any different heading into the SOSSA Bowl against MacNab.

“I feel like I felt the last few weeks, the same as I felt against Blessed Trinity and Myer,” he said. “We’ve got a good opponent that we’re playing against.

“We’ve got to play very well and have a couple of things go our way.

“Hopefully, we will come out on top.”

And, hopefully, put Welland on the map. The latest rankings posted on canadianfootballchat.com had the Irish playing out of Niagara Falls.