Bulldogs head coach Marc Mathon plays the quarterback position in this practice drill earlier this year. The Bulldogs are 2-2 at the halfway point of the season. Photo by Anthony Valade.
Bulldogs head coach Marc Mathon plays the quarterback position in this practice drill earlier this year. The Bulldogs are 2-2 at the halfway point of the season. Photo by Anthony Valade.
The North Bay Bulldogs are only mid way through the 2007 NFC season and already have more wins then they had all of last year. With a 2-2 record to their name the Bulldogs sit in seventh place but, with five teams tied for first, one win could vault them into the upper half of the league. With half the season in the books it is time to look at the good and the bad of the first four games, and to also look ahead toward the next four.
The Good
The Bulldogs defence has been very good in the early part of the season. Dave Boyd currently leads the league in sacks with six, and three of the top eight tacklers in the league are members of the Bulldogs. Head coach Marc Mathon says one of the standouts this year has been Russ Burns.
“He’s elevated his play two or three levels,” said Mathon regarding the fifth year veteran
“This is only his second year starting but he has been very good. He really is coming into his own at his position.”
One other key to the success of the defence and the overall play of the team has been the attitude they have been bringing to the field.
“Guys are buying into the system and guys are having a lot of fun, and that equals wins,” said Mathon regarding the teams’ recent success. Veteran defensive back Chris Bowes has a players’ perspective on the success they are having.
“The last couple of games we’re making turnovers and we are having good defensive stands. You can really see the momentum and the fire in the defence building off of the linebackers the d-backs the d-line all working as a unit. That's one of the nice things going on and the guys are having a lot of fun playing defence right now."
The Bulldogs have also seen their offensive line improve on a game by game basis, and their run defence has been one of the tops in the league.
The Bad
The one thing that has hurt the Bulldogs all year is something they have very little control over, and those are injuries. Key players such as Sterling Bilz, Jason Ferreira, Mike Gauthier, and Dan Gosselin have all been hampered by injuries at one point or another during the season causing them to miss playing time. They have also missed having Chris Sampson in the lineup; a player whom Mathon feels is a key piece of the puzzle and should be returning in the second half.
Penalties have also had a major impact on the Bulldogs this year. With the penalty yardage accumulating to over 100 yards on more then one occasion the Bulldogs coach says that it is up to the players to change this.
“If we stop these penalties, we win games,” said Mathon in regards to some of the untimely penalties that have been taken this year.
“In the Sarnia game we had three penalties that extended drives, which resulted in scores for the Imperials and that obviously hurts real bad. As men they need to take responsibility for their actions. They need to realize how bad this is hurting us and they need to figure out a way to stop this.”
North Bay was also set aback by a poor start. Going into week one most thought the Bulldogs would walk all over the Sarnia Imperials who had yet to win a game since joining the league. But with a revamped roster the Imperials caught the Bulldogs off guard, and coach Mathon knows his teams’ record could be better.
“We expected to be 3-1 or even 4-0,” said the coach regarding the two early losses.
"The first two games were tough, the other two games we were able to tighten up defensively, the guys have really started to have fun on defence on offence we are moving the ball a lot more, last week we moved the ball well in the first half.”
The Outlook
The second half of the season is going to be much tougher then the first, there is no doubt about that. Although the Bulldogs have the luxury of playing their next three games at home; they come against the first place Toronto Raiders, the high scoring Tri City Outlaws, and the always tough Quinte-Limestone Panthers. If that was not bad enough, the Bulldogs finish the year on the road versus the defending National Champion Oshawa Hawkeyes.
The Bulldogs know that every win is very important with the league being so tight. Going into their showdown with the first place Toronto Raiders, the team knows that if they can pull off a victory they will vault ahead of Toronto in the standings and send a message to the rest of the league.
“We have an opportunity to catapult up in the standings with a win on the 7th and attract some attention of course. I think we are going to take this week to heal and we are going to really look to prepare for the Raiders and we really want to put on a good show for the home crowd," said Mathon.
A key to a successful second half will be the return to health of quarterback Jason Ferreira from a dislocated finger on his throwing hand. The injury was suffered early in the second half last week and the team does not want him to rush back into action.
“We need to look at the whole picture and not just this week’s game,” said Mathon regarding Ferreira returning to soon and risking further injury.
“The offence is ready to break out with a big game soon. We are right there; however Jason’s finger needs to heal. We may have to go with a plan B this week, but with Chris Samson coming back, and if our offence getting healthy we are going to be tough to beat.”
The North Bay Bulldogs next game will be against the Toronto Raiders. Kickoff is scheduled for Saturday, July 7th at 7 p.m. at Rollie Fischer field.
Frustrations over field
The North Bay Bulldogs organization is very frustrated over the football lines which were painted over the last two weeks. The Bulldogs had a surveyor mark down every 5 yards and it was the responsibility of the local soccer organization to have the lines painted in accordance with the surveyors’ markings. However with a mid field line looking more like the letter “Y” and two goal lines painted for the end zone, coach Mathon has had enough.
“We need the city to issue a fine if they don’t use the pins that are there,” said Mathon regarding the look of the field.
“This is not just about the Bulldogs; it’s also about the image of our city. We have teams and officials coming from out of town and they see the field and laugh. It makes me sick. The Bulldogs have offered to paint the lines for a number of years as long as we were provided the paint, yet they have never allowed us to do it, and we have no idea why. We even offered to go out with the line painter last year but they waited until an hour before they were going out to even call us. This has been going on for years now and it must stop. We complained about the initial job that was done with the lines and had them paint them again this week. They were cris-crossed all over again. I want to issue an open invitation to our Mayor to come and see what was done on the field. It is absolutely ridiculous and someone needs to enforce a change.”
