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Bulldogs host Longhorns tonight

The North Bay Bulldogs face their biggest test of the Northern Football Conference at Rollie Fischer Field tonight. The Oakville Longhorns are in town for a 7 p.m. game and they should be in a foul mood.
The North Bay Bulldogs face their biggest test of the Northern Football Conference at Rollie Fischer Field tonight.

The Oakville Longhorns are in town for a 7 p.m. game and they should be in a foul mood.

Having a 32-game winning streak come to a halt can do that to a club.

The Longhorns lost last weekend to the Milton Marauders and they certainly won’t mind starting a new streak.

The Bulldogs didn’t exactly come up with a big effort either in their last game.

They were drubbed 23-1 in the Sault by the Steelers.

The Bulldogs were not too happy with the way the Steelers played.

First off, the Steelers, as a team, thought the Bulldogs were lucky to win 14-12 in North Bay. They said so publicly.
And the game turn ed out to be very chippy for the first three quarters until finally the officials intervened and warned both coaches that they would eject players if things didn’t change.

The Bulldogs went to the Sault missing their rotating defensive lineman and three key offensive linemen, which evidently made a very big difference.

The Sault defence blitzed the inexperienced offensive line almost all game allowing only short passes and a few runs for a total of only 126 yards of offense. Even with the deck stacked against them, quarterback Dave Wilson was still able to complete 17 passes of 25 attempts, but only for short yardage.

“This game was a disappointment but nothing more. I was actually more disappointed at the approach the Steelers players took to this game than I was about the loss,” Bulldog head coach Marc Mathon said.

“They, (Steelers), came out of the blocks with jabs, punches, very late hits, twisting ankles and cheering injuries. When we saw that the game getting out of hand, we did not allow Mike Gauthier and John Smales to play both ways.

“When we play those big guys both ways, we dramatically increase the risk of injury because they get tired. And in a game like this one, we just didn’t want to take that risk. So we limited their playing time dramatically to mostly defence

“Our goal is to finish stronger than last year, so we need to mend our injuries so that we are strongest at the end of the season,” Mathon said.

“I’m very proud of how the players performed with courage and put a lot of effort to stay out of the garbage early in the game, but guys were getting hurt and the officials were not catching it,” he continued.

“There came a time when our guys had to defend themselves and stand up for their teammates, hence the officials made numerous two way penalties. I hate when a football game takes that direction, but our guys had no choice,” he said.
“Our centre Chris Samson took an illegal cheap shot in front of our bench that was not caught by the officials. On the ensuing play, Chris found that same player in his path and made a perfectly legal, but devastating hit on him. The Sault player’s response was to try and bait him into a fight and a third player stepped in and threw punches,” Mathon stated. “If we meet them in the playoffs, our guys will remember this game.”

Going into tonight's game, Wilson has completed 58 of 111 passes for 670 yards. He has thrown for five TDs and nine interceptions.

The veteran Mark Demerling is 50 of 92 for the Longhorns and 755 yards. He has nine TD passes and has been intercepted four times.

McKerrow Bilz has rushed for 247 yards on 61 carries for the Bulldogs.

Derwin Phillips leads the Longhorns with 263 yards on 54 attempts.

Ford Morland is Wilson’s favourite receiver with 16 receptions for 256 yards.

Longhorns Theon James is the league’s top receiver with 431 yards on 18 receptions and six touchdowns.