Bulldogs and Marauders advance to Tier 1 final
Sir Winston Churchill’s touchdown machine was at it again during Thursday night’s Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Tier 1 football semifinal game between the visiting Bulldogs and the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons.
Brady Pupek scored on a 35-yard TD run and a 65-yard kick return to power the Bulldogs to a 34-6 victory and a berth in next week’s Tier 1 championship game. The Grade 12 player now has 11 touchdowns on the season.
“It’s just amazing what he can bring to the game,” Churchill head coach Peter Perron said. “I know he is a basketball guy but if there are no university coaches looking at him, there is something seriously wrong.”
Perron feels Pupek’s football IQ and athleticism makes him a special player.
“Last year he was the athlete of the year at our school and this year he is making a pretty good case for that again.”
Pupek is a key player on Churchill’s other sports teams but football is quickly moving up the ranks in terms of the Grade 12 student’s favourite sport.
“It’s first or second and it has mostly definitely gone up this year,” he said. “Basketball is obviously my first love but after playing football last year with a great team and now this year coming out to practice every day, I have fallen in love with it.”
Pupek is only in his second year of football after not having played it at his former home in West Virginia. He is constantly learning and the biggest step he has taken this season is becoming a leader.
“My entire life I have played with older kids and this is the first year I am the oldest and I have to set an example for the younger ones.”
Many of Pupek’s touchdowns have come off of passes from quarterback Quinn Johnston and the two have obvious chemistry.
“Going into the season we didn’t have a quarterback and he stepped up. He is doing a helluva job and I give all the credit to him. We connect every single day and we are great friends on and off the field. He is a dog and I love him.”
The Bulldogs finished in third place in league play with a 3-2 record, including a season-opening 20-14 overtime loss to Greater Fort Erie.
“We have been polishing all year to get to this point. When we got out of the Myer game, we started prepping for everything down the line,” Perron said.
The Bulldogs will now meet Myer for the third straight season in the championship game. Myer won 52-0 in 2019 and 22-13 in 2021.
“Last year we had some key superstars but this year we have gelled more as an overall team,” Perron said. “We have gotten a little bit older and I have told the kids from the get go that we just have to keep working hard. We have keep playing play by play and game by game and we are going to win this thing if we work hard.”
Pupek has high hopes for the final.
“We are much more prepared, we are a lot healthier and we are ready for them.”
He feels there is no secret to beating the Marauders.
“They are a great team, they are training all year round and they are ready for us so we have to fight back and be ready.”
The Gryphons were second in league play with a 4-1 record but couldn’t get past the semifinals again.
“We are not ready for the moment unfortunately,” GFESS head coach Dave Sauer said. “We have a lot of young guys who we thought would play better than they did and we have to play better in the playoffs. Their team was ready to play and ours wasn’t ready for semifinal football.”
Teams have to experience losses to be ready to win big games but the Gryphons aren’t there yet.
“They have to commit to the game and playing well at this level. There were too many moments where we lost our composure and didn’t do what we have usually done.”
Sauer believes his team isn’t that far off from winning in the semifinals and moving on to the championship game.
“It is very disappointing that we didn’t execute and play well. We are going to have high expectations for the young guys coming up. I think we are good but we weren’t at their level today and we are not at Myer’s level yet.”
STATS PACK
Bulldogs 34 Gryphons 6
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Churchill’s Brady Pupek with a 35-yard TD run and a 65-yard kick return for a major
For the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Pupek, two TDs; Quinn Johnston with a 27-yard TD run and a 27-yard TD pass to Justin Savoie; two defensive safeties; Ryan Midany with a 25-yard field goal; Malikai Stewart, fumble recovery.
For the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons: Colin LaRoche with a three-yard TD run and Chad Phillips with a fumble recovery.
Up next: Churchill plays Myer in the championship game on Nov. 3.
MARAUDERS 26 WOLFPACK 14
The visiting West Niagara Wolfpack gave the defending champion A.N. Myer Marauders senior football team all it could handle Thursday night in NRHSAA Tier 1 semifinal action.
The Wolfpack trailed 16-14 with five minutes left in the game before Myer scored late to record a 26-14 victory. West Niagara had rallied from a 14-0 deficit to tie the game.
Scoring for the Marauders were: Evan Goforth on a 25-yard pass from Tyler Goforth; Mitch Casucci on a short run; Tyler Goforth on a QB sneak; and; Aiden Hunt with a 30-yard field goal and two rouges.
“We scrapped together some points by our defence stepping up and our quarterback making some big plays to move the chains,” Myer head coach Dave Buchanan said. “We did a better job stopping the run with some great efforts by our D line, but then they adapted and passed better than the first game.”
Myer was aided by a strong game at punter by Hunt, outstanding play by Cam Papineau and D’Angelo Holeness on defence and a big interception late in the game by Nate Mcalpine.
“Penalties and turnovers were big issue for us. We are dealing with some key injuries, but our depth is showing,” Buchanan said. “It’s a prime example of why kids come to practice and prepare because it takes a whole team to get through a season.
He was impressed with the play of the Wolfpack.
“Hats off to West Niagara as they played us really tough. Their coaches had a really good game plan and their kids executed it well. They play with a lot of passion.”
For West Niagara: Xavier Zatylny had a one-yard TD run, a four-yard TD pass to Ryan Lapcevich and long pass completions to Kieran McDonald (50 yards), Tyler Soppet (45 yards) and Lucas Hazelton (32 yards) in his best performance of the season; and Murray Hildreth and Kylen Azem-Simmons had fumble recoveries.
“It was a fantastic game and a great battle,” West Niagara head coach Zack Silvethorne said. “Their D line made it extremely difficult to run inside. They were not going to let (Tyler) Foster beat them today.”
He credited his defence for playing a great game.
“They contained the big play and rallied to the ball hard. Although we are extremely happy with our effort and the quality of the game, the loss still stings. We had a chance to make a statement and just fell short again.”
