Five OFL championships for region
Seven Ontario Football League championship games. Five titles. A good weekend’s work for Waterloo Region minor football teams.
Leading the way were two Cambridge Lions Tier 1 teams — the atoms and peewees — who completed perfect 10-0 won-lost seasons, while earning their second straight titles on championship weekend in Brantford. The region’s results:t Tyke B: Waterloo 42, Guelph 32 Peewee Tier 3: TNT (New Tecumseth, west of Newmarket) 45, Waterloo 22
Bantam Tier 2: Cambridge 38, Clarington 7
Tyke A: Scarborough 32, Cambridge 6
Atom Tier 3: Cambridge 31, Oakville 12
Atom Tier 1: Cambridge 37, Hamilton 12
Peewee Tier 1: Cambridge 38, Hamilton 15
Seven teams — nearly 30 per cent — of all OFL entries, from one region, qualified for championship games. Five won. Coaches, players, parents and administrators credit a high level of coaching and parental commitment.
“Every age group seems to have really good coaching staffs, who engage with the kids and benefit from parental support,” said Waterloo Predators Tyke B coach Nick Andress, whose 3-5 regular season team got hot at the right time and avenged an earlier 19-6 loss to Guelph.
Kaleb Andress scored three touchdowns to lead Waterloo, while Oliver Price added two and Liam Bielaski had a single TD. Mason Balzer converted all six scores.
The Predators were a different team after midseason, said Andress, thanks in part to the addition of new offensive line coach David Warner.
“I was nervous playing against Guelph again, but we had started clicking as a unit and saved the best for last, the championship game,” Andress said.
The Cambridge Lions Tier 1 atoms, meanwhile, have simply been the best for several years. The team has won a total of six summer and fall season championships since 2014, while losing just one game during that run.
That loss, to London during this year’s summer season, was pivotal in terms of the OFL fall championship.
Cambridge had already beaten London and still won the summer league title, but the serving of some humble pie was fuel for moving forward.
“It’s the best thing that could have happened,” Cambridge coach Jordan Santos said. “It sent our kids a message. London was well-prepared, no excuses. They were the better team on that day.”
Thanks to a five-touchdown, three extra point performance from star running back Bobby Tsilogianis in the title game against Hamilton, Cambridge was not to be denied.
“It’s tough for teams to find an answer for him,” Santos said. “He’s shifty and just has great field awareness. He’s a special player.”
But not a one-man team, despite what statistics might suggest.
“I just like trying to get better,” said Tsilogianis, who admitted to nerves before the championship game, but relaxed after scoring his first touchdown. “I feel very happy to win it with all my friends.”
A multi-sport athlete who arrived 90 minutes before Sunday’s title game after participating in a rep hockey tournament in Chicago, Tsilogianis is part of a potent backfield that features interchangeable quarterbacks Ashton Phillips — also the team’s middle linebacker — and Jack Hodge, plus running backs Gavin Kingsbury, Jordan Jacobs and Nathan Clifford.
“We’ve got a good 1-2-3 punch,” Santos said. “But Bobby is our finisher.”
The Cambridge peewees finished their own 10-0 season, but not without a challenge from their only real competition, Hamilton. The Lions, who blew everyone else out, beat the Jr. Tiger-Cats 36-18 during the regular season and ran up a 23-0 halftime lead in the title game.
But Hamilton rallied to within 23-15; and it took a key Cambridge stop on a fourth down and short Tiger-Cats gamble to retain the lead, which made the victory more satisfying for Lions coach Steve Pahl.
“Hats off to Hamilton,” Pahl said. “Most teams, down 23-0 at halftime, would have had their heads down and just wanted to get out of there; but they came at us.
“That fourth down was a momentum changer, they would have gone up on us. It’s better for our kids to win this way, to have to fight for it.”