The year was 1967.
That is how far back one needs to go to remember when the last time a North Bay football team finished 1st in a provincial level football league.
There are still a number of guys, now in their late 60’s and 70’s who played on that North Bay Ti-Cat team and can remember the hard work it took to finish first in the NFC. Yesterday the North Bay Bulldogs Junior Varsity football team became the newest North Bay football team to finish first in a provincial competitive football league with a 28-13 win over the Orangeville Outlaws.
This game was a hard faught battle in Orangeville in which fans saw the hard work of the coaches in game planning and preparation mixed with tremendous effort and heart from the players to earn themselves a tough road win.
The sidelines were filled with North Bay Bulldogs fans cheering the visitors while the home team crowd showed pride in their team.
The temperature was 30+ degrees and humid causing the Bullldogs sideline staff to work overtime just to keep the players hydrated and ready to play.
The Outlaws opened by kicking to the Bulldogs to open the game. The kickoff return team executed the return perfectly, opening a seam for Jonathan Warren to return the ball into Outlaw territory. The Bulldogs came out running the ball with Matt Cirullo chewing up healthy yards behind fullback Weston Goulais and the offensive line, then Jonathan Warren took a handoff from QB Jacob Steringa and gained 30 yards to put the Bulldogs on the 12 yard line. On the next play running back Ryan McColeman scored on his first carry since game 2. McColeman suffered a knee injury in game 2 and was only recently cleared to play making this his first game back. After a mishandled snap the Bulldogs led 6-0.
The defense were up against the league's toughest rushing offense and their hard work in practice looked like it was paying off as they limited their gains substantially on each play. Mason McGriskin stepped into the game and looked to move the ball downfield, but the Orangeville defense was very aggressive. So the teams traded a couple of punts. Then the Outlaw offense began to convert a series of 3rd downs and completed a deep ball to put them on the Bulldogs 13 yard line. Although it took them 4 plays, they were able to punch it in to take the lead 7-6 after the convert.
That lead was short lived and everyone knew they were in for a real battle when Jonathan Warren got the ball at the Bulldogs 14 yard line on what was supposed to be an outside run, but was bottled up and looked like a loss of yards was going to be the result. However, the offensive line and receivers just kept blocking until finally Jonathan found an opening which turned into a 15 second play ending in a 97 yard scoring run.
"I was impressed to see all our receivers, running backs and linemen running and looking for front numbers on defenders to block,” said Mathon
“They just didn't stop blocking and it was electrifying to see the team just keep blocking for Johnny. He didn't actually break away until the 55 yard line. That was an impressive team score.”
The defense was equally excited and knew they had to stop the Outlaw offense. The defensive linemen Stephane Levesque, Ryan Dowdall, Ty Meighan and Ray Haskell battled as hard as they could to limit the Outlaws gains. The rest of the first half was a defensive battle on both sides with the teams heading into half time with the Bulldogs leading 13-7.
The 3rd quarter opened with the Outlaws receiving the kick-off. Rookie Isaac Hamilton made a TD saving tackle which could have given the Outlaws a significant momentum shift. The Bulldogs defense bent and despite the drive moving the ball 30+ yards they held and created their first turnover on downs making a huge 4th down stop. The offensive game plan took life as the 2nd half started with different guys getting the ball with Adam Courchesne taking short pass from McGriskin more then 30 yards and then running the ball again for a solid gain.
The freshman Dawson Drinkwalter gained an important first down with some very tough running and later McColeman showed he is ready to return with some tough rushing of his own to bring the Bulldogs down to the Outlaws 17 yard line. McGriskin then found John Warren in the end zone for his 2nd touch down of the day. The Bulldogs were up 20-7.
The coaching staff saw something in the Outlaw kickoff return and gave Jonah Tignanelli instructions on where to kick the ball.
The result was a booming kick to an open area landing and rolling into the end zone with great coverage to give the Bulldogs a single point and a 21-7 lead.
On the next drive while having a great game in coverage and run stopping, defensive back Gab Bigras suffered an injury to his elbow that caused a 45 minute stoppage of play for medical assistance.
"After the injury to Gab, the defense really seemed to get charged up and found something inside that pushed them harder....they were fierce,” exclaimed Coach Mathon.
They continued to hold off the Orangeville offense, but this time a Brayden Campbell hit caused a fumble in Bulldogs territory and it was recovered by a Bulldogs defender.
The offense got back on the field and looked to eat up time with a solid ground game that moved the field position up and into Outlaw territory. The teams traded punts with some big hits coming from Philip Fortin, Jay Turnsek, Brayden Campbell and Michael Paquet to once again stop the Outlaw offense on a 4th down gamble.
On the next drive the Bulldogs offense ran a play that took advantage of overpursuit of the linebackers and the O-Line opened a huge hole for Matt Cirullo who made no mistake finding a seam outside behind a devastating block by Evan Desrosiers to score from 50 yards out and put the Bulldogs up 28-7.
The Outlaws offense did not give up and battled hard in the 4th quarter finding some seams and then finally their best player found an opening and broke away finally being stopped at the 1 yard line. Although it took them 2 plays, they scored. The Bulldogs blocked the convert holding the score to 28-13.
On the ensuing kickoff return, the Bulldogs put out their "hands" team. Despite a kick to an open space by the Outlaws kicker, Riley Geisler was able to get to the ball and secured possession for the Bulldogs with Jon Warren also at the point of recovery.
"It was a good bus ride home, but the guys all understand that this was only a step and that we have not yet finished our mission. We will be preparing this week very hard for our upcoming playoff game in North Bay against the Barrie area TNT team,” said coach Mathon.
