‘Unfinished business’ tops Marauders’ agenda
Myer win over Churchill in D1 final sets stage for 2017 Niagara Bowl rematch with Notre Dame
The A.N. Myer Marauders took the title, but they didn’t take the trophy that comes with winning the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association (NRHSAA) Division 1 senior football championship.
They made a point of not even touching the trophy after dominating the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs, 52-0, on their home turf Friday night in Niagara Falls.
“Don’t touch that trophy! Don’t touch it!” the players shouted as they surrounded the table on which the unclaimed prize was placed for a team picture.
Graduating senior Trent Hunter, who, along with his Myer teammates, touched the trophy in each of the past two years, made a point of steering clear of it this time out.
The memories of upset losses to the Notre
Dame Fighting Irish and, last season, to the Saint Paul Patriots in the Niagara final still gnaw at the upwards of 20 players competing in their final season of high school football.
“We touched it the past two years, and we didn’t have a good outcome,” the Grade 12 B student said.
“So we’re trying something new. Superstitious.”
Hunter, whose team will play Notre Dame for the right to represent the region in the provincial playdowns, said the Marauders don’t need any extra motivation to take on the Irish in a rematch of the 2017 Niagara Bowl.
“We just worked so hard in the summer and two hours a day after school every day. All that work for nothing in a game that we could’ve won and should’ve won.” TRENT HUNTER A.N. MYER MARAUDERS SLOTBACK/DEFENSIVE END
“It’s a redemption game for us. We’ll play with a chip on our shoulder for sure,” he said. “We’ll be ready to play. We have a lot of unfinished business, I’d say.”
Hunter recalled feeling devastated after the Marauders followed up their past two public school board titles by losing to the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association (NCAA) champions the following week.
“It happened in Grade 11 and 12. Just all that work for nothing,” he said. “We just worked so hard in the summer and two hours a day after school every day. All that work for nothing in a game that we could’ve won and should’ve won.”
Myer swept Churchill in the home-and-home in league play — 27-6 on Oct. 4 in Niagara Falls, 49-6 on Oct. 18 in St. Catharines — but the Marauders weren’t looking past the Bulldogs when they took the field Friday night.
“We knew they were going to come out guns blazing. They have some good athletes and everything,” Hunter said. “But it was my last game on this field, and for a lot of players as well, so we played with a lot of heart.”
He is already looking forward to playing the Fighting Irish in the regional final at Kiwanis Field in St. Catharines.
“They play with a lot of energy. They’re a pretty fast team, too,” Hunter said. “I think it’s a good matchup.”
Churchill head coach Peter Perron called the loss a valuable learning experience for a varsity program that had six Grade 9 players in the lineup and can return as many as 35 players.
He also said advancing to the championship was a “steppingstone” for the Bulldogs.
“A stepping-stone in the sense that it helps us go into the right direction of what we want to do,” Perron said. “We don’t have junior ball, but the experience they get by doing this is beyond believe.”
Injuries plagued Churchill all season — “We’ve had stints when we were healthy, and stints where we were not healthy,” the veteran coach said — and the Bulldogs faced the Marauders missing their two middle linebackers, their starting quarterback and starting running back.
“That has an effect on us, but we start to look at what we have to do to become better,” Perron said. “How do we increase their physical conditioning so that those injuries may not occur.
“We will come back fresh, we come back (with the idea) that this was a learning experience, and we excel for the next game.”
Myer quarterback Willy Jackman threw 65- and 50-yard touchdown passes to Mateo Corritore and Hunter, respectively. Hunter also ran for 21-, five- and one-yard TDs. Winfield Organ returned a kick 60 yards for a touchdown, Jacob Burke ran for a 10-yard touchdown and Chris Bechkos kicked a 22-yard field goal to round out the scoring.
The third-seeded Westlane Spartans upset No. 1 seed Myer, 12-7, in the junior final that kicked off the NRHSAA’s championship doubleheader Friday night in Niagara Falls.