Bulldogs blanked by Steelers

Bulldogs linebacker Randy Nodder (left) prepares to hammer Soo quarterback Travis Mclean (right). The Soo signal caller would have the last laugh, as he led his team down the field for a game winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Photo by Chris Dawson.

It was not the home opener that the Bulldogs were anticipating. A countless amount of penalties and a lackluster offence allowed the visiting Sault Ste. Marie Steelers to walk out of Rollie Fischer field with a 7-0 victory.

The game was scoreless until late in the fourth quarter when Sault Ste. Marie Steelers quarterback Travis Mclean connected with wide receiver Tim Higgins on an 80 yard bomb late in the fourth quarter, and two plays later running back Toby Traverson punched it in for the touchdown in a low scoring, penalty filled game that both teams won’t boast about.

“Most of the credit I have to give to my lineman, to see where I was, all I did was let it go, I can’t out throw that guy he’s too fast, too fast and he’s my go to guy,” Travis Mclean, who completed 7 passes for 124 yards, said after the game.

“They figured they would take a shot at it and the corner stumbled, didn’t turn the right way and stumbled and that’s a breakdown and the guy caught him right over top it was a good ball, a well thrown ball," admits a frustrated Bulldogs head coach Marc Mathon as his club falls to 1-2 on the season.

TD called back

The Bulldogs thought they had scored the first touchdown of the game late in the second quarter, when a Travis Mclean pass was tipped and fell right into the hands of Steve Fleming who returned it over 50 yards for what appeared to be a touchdown. However, the touchdown was called back after a flag was thrown 40 yards behind the play. That was one of many calls against the Bulldogs that drove the coaching staff nuts on this night.

“We’ve got to make some changes there’s obviously something we’ve got to do,” Mathon said.

“I’m sure we got 130 – 140 yards in penalties and every 75 yards in penalties is a touchdown, a touchdown was called back by a penalty, I really think a lot had to do with breakdowns at the wrong time, taking penalties and more importantly we’ve got some good offensive lineman that are injured and that hurt us, we weren’t able to do what we wanted to do on offence, we’ve got to move the ball downfield and we absolutely have to score some points.”

Bulldog Bites

The Bulldogs also missed three field goals on the night, the first one blocked on the first drive of the first quarter, second attempt in the 2nd quarter was botched by a bad snap and no kick was even attempted, and the third was about a 40 yard attempt by Ricky Thompson in the fourth quarter that went wide left… Dave Wilson who had only 4 completions for 51 yards, handled the quarterbacking duties and was ineffective, under throwing his receivers early on and completing a pass to the wrong number 14, Steelers DB Wade Kraft,(intended for Bulldogs #14 Andre Landry) during the Bulldogs last minute drive... Overall, the Dogs offense rushed 32 times for 129 yards and completed 4 passes of 18 attempts for 51 yards to total 180 yards of offense... Russ Burns and Steve Flemming each made an interception while Brad Kerr and Randy Nodder each stripped the ball from the ball carrier once... RB Mick Bilz who led the team with 53 yards rushing on 13 carries, appeared to injure his arm in the 3rd quarter but returned to action in the 4th quarter… Cogeco covered the game and it will be broadcasted at a later date.