Fourth straight championship
Crestwood Mustangs advance to COSSA AAA senior bowl with win over Falcons
The Crestwood Mustangs senior football team picked a good time to put their best game of the season together.
Fuelled by five interceptions from their defence, the Mustangs recorded a fourth straight Kawartha championship with a 23-3 win over the Fenelon Falls Falcons on Friday night at the Thomas A. Stewart Athletic Field.
No one knew for sure but Crestwood coach Shane Oldfield believesit’sthefirstKawarthafinal not involving Crestwood against the Adam Scott Lions since the Mustangs played Fenelon Falls in 2004. The Mustangs will represent Kawartha at the COSSA AAA bowl game to be hosted in Belleville. The date and opponent is still to be confirmed.
This year there will be no National Capital Bowl for AA teams, said Oldfield. His team elected to play AAA, as it always does when it has the opportunity, he said, where there is a chance to play for an OFSAA Bowl. Fenelon Falls will represent Kawartha in AA where COSSA is the final game. They’ll host the Quinte Region rep on Wednesday.
Dawson Puk scored two of the Crestwood touchdowns including a 40-yard return off a pick-six interception that cemented the win late in the third quarter.
“It’s a pretty great feeling especially because we’ve had a few bumps going through the season,” Puk said. “We’ve always managed to pull through and live by our bend but don’t break theory but today we rally came together as a unit.”
“I really thought our defence played well,” said Oldfield, whose team has won Kawartha 15 of the past 17 years.
“They threw a bunch of stuff at us we hadn’t seen before and tried to trick us with a number of different formations. Our guys really stepped up and adjusted and played terrific. Our offence, obviously, had to score points and they did but I really credit our defence with meeting the challenge of a really good offence in Fenelon Falls.”
The Falcons took a 3-0 lead on Devan Burbine’s 37-yard field goal 4:08 into the game which they carried into the second quarter.
Emerson DeCarlo’s 30 yard run down to the Falcons’ fouryard line set up Crestwood’s first score 1:26 into the second quarter. Chase Batley finished the drive with a quarter-back keep from one yard out. The convert was blocked.
Fenelon Falls threatened when they recovered their own punt on Crestwood’s 25 but Puk halted the threat intercepting Nick Clarkin’s pass. Crestwood marched the ball and Puk scored on a seven-yard run to cap the drive with 23 seconds left in the first half. Zach Aucoin converted for a 13-3 lead.
Puk blew the game open when he returned an interception 40 yards for a major with 2:32 left in the third quarter. Aucoin made it 20-3. Brad Dalgarno also had two interceptions and Aaron Bradshaw one for Crestwood. Aucoin added a 19-yard field goal with 2:49 left in the fourthquarter.
“Our problem all year has been playing the full four quarters and today we got a full four quarters from everybody,” Puk said.
Falcons coach Bob Carruth said his team got worn down.
“We came out strong and looked pretty good at the start,” Carruth said.
“We have a lot of two-way players and when it was all said and done we started to run out of gas at a point in time. They had the horses and got the job done and hat’s off to them. Every game has a flow and I could see we were starting to wear down and as a consequence we couldn’t quite get the job done.”
NOTE: See junior championship game coverage on Page D2.