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Bulldogs Report

A busy weekend of Bulldogs football from Bantam to NFC
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Junior Varsity Bulldogs in action. Photo by Chris Allard.

The North Bay Bulldogs hosted the first ever quadruple header football event ever hosted in North Bay. Despite the constant forecast of heavy rains and thunderstorms the weather held off and gave the Bulldogs a warm summer-like day for this historical event. Early in the morning the Barrie area TNT club took on the North Bay Bulldogs at the Bantam level where the young Bulldogs battled to a 21–12 win.

The Bantam Bulldogs travel to Vaughn to take on the Rebels on Saturday, June 2 at 2:30 p.m. at Joan of Arc School.

BANTAM BULLDOGS

On Saturday May 26 The North Bay Bantam Bulldogs hosted the TNT Express in The second week of OPFL action.  The Bulldogs got off to an early start with a deep pass from Riley Huter to Quintan Vega-Goulais to take an early lead on the visiting Express 6 to 0 on the first offensive series of the game.

The Bulldogs defense held strong for most of the first quarter before letting TNT break a run to the outside taking it in for a score to tie the game, our d-line took some big steps forward today and was able to shut down inside after giving up a lot of yards there last week says coach Eric Morgan.  Leeland MacDonald, Mason Vanderschee, Cameron Dowdall and Caleb Bradshaw did an outstanding job up front for us today says Morgan.  The Bulldogs made a long 26-yard field goal by Nicholas D'Agostino before the half to put them up 9 to 6 going into the half.

In the second half the TNT Express scored again to take the lead 12 to 9 followed by another Bulldogs score on an end around to Quintan Vega-Goulais to once again take the lead 15-12.  Late in the fourth quarter the Bulldogs stalled on a drive at the TNT 30 yard line, and faked a field goal attempt where Riley Huter found Will McCharles in the end zone to take a 21 to 12 lead with just 3 minutes left in the game. 

"Again our defense came up big in that last 3 minutes stalling there final drive to take the win, we improved on a lot of things from last week and we are getting better each week," said coach Morgan.

The Bantam Bulldogs are on the road next week visiting the  0 and 2 Vaughn Rebels.
 

BULLDOGS JUNIOR VARSITY

The second game saw the young Bulldogs Junior Varsity team coming off a 24–0 loss to Clarington last week worked hard and improved immensely offensively as they put up 27 points vs TNT in the 27–26 win. It was very much a see-saw battle as the Bulldogs opened the scoring with Riley Lavergne taking an outside run in from 12 yards out for an opening 7-0 lead. TNT responded with their own drive but with a blocked convert the Bulldogs held on to a 7–6 lead. The teams traded TDs again with the Bulldogs holding on to a slim 14–12 lead. 

The 3rd quarter opened with TNT putting together a long drive fueled by strong outside running capped with a 3rd TD to take an 18-14 lead as they missed the point after again. The Bulldogs opened up the passing game as TNT seemed to be pressing with run stopping attack. Bulldogs QB duo of Jacob Aubertin and Owen Webb combined for some success in the air earlier in the game. After taking advantage of openings in coverage Bulldogs QB Owen Webb began to put together a drive passing almost exclusively which culminated in a reception by Sean Kelly at the 7-yard line with the great effort to break 2 tackles and score the go-ahead TD. TNT Express blocked the PAT attempt to keep the lead to a manageable 20–18.

In the 4th quarter, the teams battled hard exchanging punts, but TNT once again struck paydirt with a long drive to take a 24–20 lead capped with a rushing TD. Their 2 point convert was successful to extend their lead to 26–20. The Bulldogs offense on the ensuing play was stopped and forced to punt. 

The Defense held the TNT Express to force a punt giving the Bulldogs offense one more drive with just under 3 minutes to play. Again fueled by the short passing game the Bulldogs drove to the TNT 32 yard line where QB Owen Webb found Carson Cleator behind the TNT defensive back in the end zone to tie the game. Cleator then kicked the convert to give the Bulldogs that slim 1 point lead. 

The Bulldogs JV defense made some adjustments to contain the TNT powerful reverse and outside run to force them to pass. Despite gaining a first down the defense limited the gains. With few seconds left TNT attempted a deep pass which was intercepted by a Bulldog defensive back to end the game.

The J.V. Bulldogs travel to Vaughn to take on the Rebels on Sat June 2 at 5 pm at Joan of Arc School.

BULLDOGS SENIOR VARSITY

The Bulldogs Senior Varsity team took the field for the first time ever on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

This group was just excited and grateful to even be playing football this season.

The club signed some 46 players to the senior varsity roster and they came out Saturday showing their excitement for the game as they put on a terrific showing for the hundreds of fans that were on hand for the event.

The Bulldogs defense applied consistent pressure on the TNT Express offense limiting their production significantly. The TNT offense spent the entire first half of the game in their own half of the field. The Bulldogs are known for developing an effective safe tackling technique which surely showed its value Saturday with some great displays of good tackling.

The Bulldogs Senior Varsity team were without standout defensive player Jay Turnsek and QB Mason McGriskin as they were invited to explore football opportunities in Michigan.  

Bulldogs wide receiver Jacob Steringa stepped in at the quarterback position for this game. Thankfully Steringa has some experience at the position having played QB for the Chippewa Raiders in 2017.

While relying heavily on the consistent rushing of Ryan McColeman and the offensive linemen, Steringa found some success in the air as well. There were some great efforts by receivers such as Lyric Loranger who caught a 24-yard pass but turned it into a 72 yard gain behind the relentless downfield blocking of teammate receivers taking the offense down to the 4-yard line. There were great circus catches by converted defensive back Conor Doyle including a TD score where he outworked the TNT defender high up in the air for the ball. 

With a field goal and the defense scoring, two safeties the Bulldogs completed their debut with a 35 – 2 win after the TNT defense was able to score a safety on the backed up Bulldogs late in the game. 

The Senior Varsity Bulldogs will host the TNT Express in a rematch again next Sunday, June 3rd at Omischl Sports Complex with a kickoff time of 2:30 pm.

NFC BULLDOGS

Later in the evening, the NFC level Bulldogs team took on the Toronto Raiders in the season opener. Despite being low in numbers the Bulldogs stayed in the game keeping the Raiders scoreless for 3 quarters. The Bulldogs offense was challenged to gain a first down early in the game, but the defense was attacking and kept the Dogs in the hunt. 

The Raiders are significantly improved over last year with the addition of Aaron Stora-Nelson a CJFL 1,000 yard receiver who also played QB. The Bulldogs defense consistently flushed him out of the pocket, but his speed was creating issues for the Dogs defense. 

The second quarter was the telltale quarter as the Bulldogs yielded 34 points to the Raiders amid 2 fumbled punt returns, a fumble on a run play an interception and a mishandled snap on a punt. All those plays gave the Raiders a short field starting their drive well inside the Bulldogs 30 yard line. 

“It was error after error after error and it looked very bad at the half,” said Head Coach Marc Mathon.

The halftime adjustments were effective and the team came out with a renewed spirit. The Defense held and the offense started to move the ball effectively finding themselves in the Raider red zone 3 times. Penalties and miscues, however, kept the Bulldogs off the scoreboard.

“All the Raiders points were off turnovers in our end of the field," said Mathon.

The game score looks bad, but if we eliminate the penalties and the turnovers, this game is much much closer. I am very happy with the effort these guys put out on Saturday as they showed true courage and character in adverse conditions. We have a great nucleus of players.” 

The Bulldogs next game is on the road as they visit the Sudbury Spartans who also lost their opener to Hamilton’s Steel City Patriots 22–7 at James Jerome Field June 2nd at 7:15 pm. The Dogs next home game is June 9 at Omischl vs the Soo Steelers at 6:30 p.m.