Saints Win OFC Championship, Advance to National Semi-Final

Windsor, ON – The St. Clair Saints were awarded the Teddy Morris trophy Saturday night for winning the Ontario Football Conference Championship. A convincing 38-7 win over rival London Beefeaters will see the Saints take on the Okanagan Sun in the CJFL Semi-Final.

On an historic day for St. Clair Athletics, the Football program was the last piece of the puzzle for Saints Nation. In front of a capacity crowd at Acumen Stadium, the Saints got the ball rolling early with a long drive capped off by a Quarterback sneak for a touchdown by Andrew Brush (Kitchener, ON), giving the Saints the early 7-0 lead. The defense strung together another dominant performance holding the Beefeaters under 200 total yards for the game. The Saints were led by Linebacker Nikolas Mahlman (Kitchener, ON) who registered 6 solo tackles and a sack.

The second quarter saw London in excellent field position after a blocked punt, which put the Beefeaters at the Saints 30-yard line. A few plays later, the Beefeaters found the endzone and the game was tied at seven. 32 second later, Acumen Stadium erupted as Wide Receiver Enzey Youyoute (Mississauga, ON) caught a pass from Andrew Brush and broke free for an 82-yard touchdown reception, giving the Saints a 14-7 lead. The next 12 minutes of the quarter saw a defensive battle from both teams, as the score remained 14-7 in favour of the Saints headed into halftime.

A quick stop by the Saints defense to start the second half, allowed the OFC Offensive Player of the Year to make an impact on the game. Wide Receiver Jared Hayes-Williams (Windsor, ON) made another highlight reel catch, securing a 46-yard touchdown pass from Brush, giving the Saints a 21-7 lead to end the third quarter. Hayes-Williams finished the game with 3 receptions for 79 yards and the touchdown.

In the fourth quarter the Saints rushing attack wore down the Beefeaters defense as M.J. Doyle Marshall (Airdrie, AB) added two rushing touchdowns to extend the Saints lead. Doyle-Marshall ran 13 times for 137 yards while adding the 2 touchdowns. The Saints rushing performance was one to remember as the team compiled 400 yards rushing on 45 carries. As the final horn blew, the scoreboard read 38-7 crowing the Saints the OFC Champions.

The Saints will be back home at Acumen Stadium hosting the CJFL National Semi-Final this Saturday, October 29^th at 7:00pm. The opponent will be the Okanagan Sun who are the British Columbia Conference Champions. This will be a battle of the #1 and #2 ranked teams in Canada.

See some notes below from the game.

EVENT:          St. Clair Saints vs London Beefeaters

DATE/TIME:  Sat, Oct. 22^nd (7:00pm)

LOCATION:   Acumen Stadium

RESULT:       St. Clair (10-0) defeated London (7-3) by a score of 38-7.