July 23 Spears and minor football report
Fort Erie Longhorns’ Kaden Craft is brought down by the St. Catharines Seahawks’ Raydon Gouthro in Niagara Regional Minor Football bantam action. Photo by ED TELENKO
The Niagara Spears Junior Varsity Tier 2 football team concluded the regular season in Ontario Provincial Football League action with a 21-14 road loss to the Clarington Knights.
Niagara finished with a 5-3 record and ended up in third place in the league. The Spears will travel to Clarington Saturday to play the second-place Knights (7-1) in the first round of the playoffs.
“A hard-fought battle right to the very end,” Niagara head coach Gerry DiSanto said. “Clarington broke open a 14-14 tie with a major score with less than a minute left in the game.
“Our 28-man roster competed exceptionally well against their 42 man roster, especially our defence.”
Bryce Livingston scrambled from one side of the field to other before throwing a touchdown pass to Josh Boyle to open the scoring for Niagara and Josh Morley followed with a two-point convert. Landon Leger scored the other major for Niagara.
Below are Niagara Regional Minor Football results:
JUNIOR VARSITY ELITE DIVISION
Sun Devils 44 Gamblers 7
Sun Devils: Mason Arbic, TD and three converts; William Shultz, two TDs and two converts; Anthony Gomez, TD and two-point convert; Game Loiselle, two TDs and two-point convert.
Gamblers: Chris Long, TD and convert; Tanner Pirson, two interceptions; outstanding effort by Pirson, Owen Iwose and Alex Cowen.
ATOM DIVISION
Seahawks 16 Longhorns 12
St. Catharines Seahawks: Dhabi Williams, TD; Josh Savoie, TD, convert and three-point convert;
Fort Erie Longhorns: Jordan Payne, TD; Palm Smith, TD.
Lions 27 Steelers 9
Niagara Falls Lions: Lucas Panucci, two TDs; Marco Angelini, TD; Blake McKinnon, TD; EastonThomas, three-point convert.
West Niagara Steelers: Aiden Keus, TD; Matt McDevitt, three-point convert.
PEEWEE DIVISION
Longhorns 18 Seahawks 0
Fort Erie Longhorns: Max Heron, two TDs; Andre Hoffman, TD.
St. Catharines Seahawks: No scoring.
Tiger-Cats 28 Argos 25
Welland Tiger-Cats: Dylan Dellemonache, two TDs; Nick Jokic, TD; Ben Tsano, TD; Thomas Alexander, two two-point converts;
Niagara Falls Argos: Clayton Wilen, three TDs; Julian Mangiacasale, TD and convert; outstanding effort by Joey Gabriele and Keegan Herries on offence and by Breton Pearcey and Everett Hemauer on defence.
BANTAM DIVISION
Longhorns 36 Seahawks 34
Fort Erie Longhorns: Steven Phillips, four TDs: Kaiden Craft, two two-point converts; Kody Macrae, TD; safety by defence.
St. Catharines Seahawks: Deondre Forde, two TDs and two-point convert; Quinn Johnson, three TDs; Joshua Kaufman, two-point convert.
Tiger-Cats 27 Argos 12
Welland Tiger-Cats: Brian Mauvais, two TDs; Colton Kizlyk, TD and two two-point converts; Tate Donovan, TD.
Niagara Falls Argos: Aden Martinez, TD; Connor McKee, TD.
