Bulldogs advance to semis (new)

The North Bay Bulldogs once again found a way and stuck to their “never say die” principles and came back in the fourth quarter to defeat Oshawa Hawkeyes 13-12 in a Northern Football Conference quarterfinal game. The Hawkeyes finished second and North Bay was seventh.

North Bay advances to the semifinals against the top-ranked Oakville Longhorns in one of two semifinals Saturday. The Longhorns defeated North Bay 43-0 in their lone meeting this year in North Bay.

Mike Gauthier and John Smales used their 360 lb frames to anchor the offensive line for a final minute drive. With a little more time to read the defence, quarterback Dave Wilson was able to find sure handed Ricky Thompson for two catches, Sterling Bilz, with one catch and Ford Morland with another setting up a second and goal from the ¸Oshawa four yard line with 19 seconds left on the clock.

Wilson took the snap and that allowed the offensive line to spread the defensive line’s pass rush and darted for the end zone just off the right tackle and slipped his way through to paydirt. The no-huddle offence was able to get six plays off in about 40 seconds, which kept the defence from making any adjustments.

Each team’s offence worked hard to determine how to solve the opponent’s defence. Wilson and the Dogs offense finally solved the Oshawa defence in the fourth quarter, as it was the short passing game that led the offence to score their two touchdowns. The Dogs marched the ball late in the third quarter as Wilson connected with Mark McLeod at the Oshawa 23 yard line, only to receive a big hit by an Oshawa defender which jarred the ball loose. Morland was on the spot to pick up the fumble and ran it into the end zone for the Dog’s first TD. Thompson’s convert gave the Dogs the 7–6 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The story was the tremendous play by the underrated Bulldogs defence.

“This defence is developing into one of the league’s very best. In two games, our defence held the second place team to a total of 22 points,” Bulldogs head coach Marc Mathon said.

“We knew we had to count on the defence today because we were without our two starting offensive tackles and the offence was in a tough one, and they rose to the occasion, giving us the stops we needed and the field position,” Mathon said.

With three of the stronger offensive linemen missing for the game, the Dogs had to count on veteran Al Butcher, who has been holding a back up role and a shuttling system with the two workhorse defensive tackles and rookie Widdifield Wildcat Ryan Lanto.

“It looked more like a Chinese fire drill with all those guys shuttling in and out to play those two tackle positions, but we are so happy with the courage they displayed in rising to the occasion, finding a way to make it work,” Mathon said.

The Dogs defence held the Hawkeyes to only 23 yards rushing on 15 carries for 1.5 yards per carry average.

“Our game plan was to eliminate their rushing game and dictate the game by forcing them to pass. We knew they would gain some yards, but we also knew that we could limit their scoring if we could take away half their game and force them to pass. Our defensive guys, including coach Paquette, executed the game plan pretty well to perfection,” Mathon said.

Oshawa scored the go ahead TD as QB Chris Foster threw a 30-yard strike, but Oshawa tried a two-point convert, but was not successful.

Earlier in the second quarter, Oshawa Jeremy Mussche found Even Davis for a 36 yard pass, creating the only real blemish to an otherwise solid defensive pass coverage game. The Dogs gave up 244 yards passing, but only two TDs.

Brad Kerr led the defence behind the powerful defensive line with four tackles and a tackle for a loss, while Dwayne Guy registered two tackles and two tackles for losses and all-star defensive lineman candidate Mike Gauthier registered three tackles and one tackle for a loss.

Brian Samson was asked to play defensive half for this game and came up with a big fumble recovery late in the game to ultimately set up the Dogs. Second TD. Second-year Russ Burns had a much better game as he is showing great improvements and development at the corner position. He and longtime veteran Curtis Quizon didn’t allow anything long down the sidelines.

Defensive End Justin Boufford showed his tremendous reach and speed as he was forcing the QB to throw the ball early for most of the evening.

“The Oshawa QBs are fairly good, but our pass rush wasn’t allowing them to settle, very often they had to pass on the run,” Mathon explained.

“I’m extremely proud of how well our defense played tonight, they showed discipline, persistence and exemplary courage,” defensive coach Dean Paquette added.

“The Hawkeyes prepared for the Bulldogs’ powerful rushing game as well. They changed up their defence after having Mick Bilz run wild on them in their July 24 meeting in North Bay. Bilz rushed for 166 yards against them in that game. They saw that we were having trouble with our passing game and basically told their LBs to play the run and let the DBs play the pass. They limited Bilz to 27 yards before he had to leave the game with a leg injury,” Paquette said.

“We worked hard on our short passing game last week, since that is where we felt we could do some damage to the Oshawa defence, “Mathon said.

“If there is one thing we have learned how to do well is control the clock. Dean keeps me informed on how many time-outs I have available and time elapsed and I call the plays in to Wilson,” Mathon said.

North Bay had a small contingent of about 20 fans in Oshawa for the game. “They instilled great feelings for us because when we made a great play on defence or offence, we heard them loud and clear. We say thanks to them,” Mathon said.