Notre Dame takes title despite rash of penalties
Irish corral Mustangs, advance to Niagara Region final against public school board champions
Snow flurries weren’t the only things falling to the ground Thursday when Notre Dame Fighting Irish faced the Saint Michael Mustangs for the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior football championship.
Also filling the cold air over the turf at Kiwanis Field in St. Catharines were penalty flags. Lots and lots of red penalty flags. The kind that kill drives, zap any attempt at getting — let alone, sustaining — momentum, and drive coaches crazy. Notre Dame head coach Tim Bisci saw enough flags in his team’s 26-0 victory to be concerned with how the Irish will fare in next week’s all-Niagara final against the public school board’s playoff champion.
Zack Melnyk and Jacob Succar rushed for 12- and 75-yard touchdowns, Cole Smith kicked 22- and 31-yard field goals, and top-seeded Notre Dame had three safeties to round out the scoring.
But the Irish left a lot of points on the field due to penalties.
“You have a big run, and it’s pulled back. We make a play, and it’s pulled back,” Bisci said. “We stop them on defence, but they get the ball more often because of penalties. We just can’t have that. We just can’t have these things happening.”
Undisciplined play plagued host Notre Dame in the neutral-site game, from just after the opening kickoff to just before the final whistle.
“This is probably as bad as we can play, so hopefully we got this out of our system and can move on,” Bisci said.
“I’m surprised we even got through this one. We shot ourselves in the foot time and time again.”
Succar agreed with his coach that the priority for Notre Dame is to stop giving back yards on penalties.
“We definitely shot ourselves in the foot. We did not deserve this win; we didn’t play up to our full potential,” the Grade 12 student said. “If we don’t get that fixed up, then I can imagine us not winning.”
Saint Michael head coach Brian Carter was pleased by how much better the Mustangs played in the rematch Thursday, after dropping a 36-7 decision to Notre Dame in Week 2 of the regular season.
“In the first game, our kids were a little intimidated by the physicality of Notre Dame. They were a little shy,” he said. “In this game, they didn’t back down. They stood up for themselves, and they battled and were very physical.
“There was a huge improvement from the first game to this game,” he added.
Likewise, there was a significant improvement by a Mustangs team that started the season 0-2 before winning five games in a row.
“We had a bunch of new kids who hadn’t played football. They were athletic kids who came out to try football out for a year,” Carter said.
“Notre Dame is a very strong team, so to come out and compete the way that these guys did, give everything they have — I cannot ask for anything more from them than they did today.” Notre Dame dominated on both sides of the ball, going undefeated in league play. The Fighting Irish (6-0) led the seven-team division in scoring with 238 points, and only the Saint Paul Patriots (5-1) allowed fewer points, 29 to 33.
The No. 3 seed Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs visit topseeded A.N. Myer Marauders tonight in Niagara Falls, after upsetting the second-seeded Greater Fort Erie Gryphons, 30-29 in double overtime, in the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association semifinals.
The Niagara championship takes place at 7 p.m. next Thursday, also on the turf at Kiwanis Field.