Bulldogs will try to even record on the road

The North Bay Bulldogs will look to even their record at 2-2 when they go on the road to face the Milton Marauders Saturday. Coming off their first win of the season the Bulldogs hope to ride the momentum to a second consecutive victory. Milton is 0-2 on the season having been outscored 78-6 so far, but Bulldogs coach Marc Mathon is not worried about his team taking them for granted.

“No, we’re focused,” said Mathon in regards to his team looking beyond the Marauders.

“We are not going to take anything for granted. This year we are going into the games thinking that every team is the best team in the league. We have spent a lot of time this week making sure the guys are concentrating on the game and not looking at stats. They (Milton) won the National Championship just a couple of years ago so we cannot look past them.”

With five teams sitting with either 1-2 or 2-1 records, a victory this week could very well put the Bulldogs in the top half of the standings heading into their bye week. The coach knows that getting in the top half would be a great confidence boost, and allows the team to control their fate this year.

“It’s huge,” said Mathon regarding getting into the top half of the standings.

“There are so many teams in the mix this year, getting into the top half is big. The standings are so tight, but if you can get into the top half then you can control things. This is big for our guys. Knowing that we have some key players coming back, to be at .500 going into the bye week would be great.”

On the injury front, the coach noted that they would have one and possibly two big returns this week. It is a definite that Kevin Ramakko will be returning this week to start at fullback but the other return is not so certain. Offensive lineman Chris Samson is a possibility but is no where close to being a definite; it will most likely come after the bye week.

As far as any changes heading into the week, Mathon says there are not going to be any. The general consensus is that changes need to be made to the offence but the coach is not budging. After scoring only seven points in their last two games the coach feels that better execution is all that is needed rather than making wholesale changes.

“It’s a matter of executing the plays,” said Mathon regarding his team’s lack of scoring.

“We just need to tweak the things that are going wrong and execute the plays we have. I’m very confident in the offence we have in place. We have speed, size, aggressiveness, and talent on the offensive side of the ball, and we don’t need to change anything to show that. We’ll be fine and we’ll get better.”

The Bulldogs are set for a 3 p.m. kickoff this Saturday afternoon, so check back to Baytoday.ca for results and reaction from the game.

Everyone Welcome

Coach Mathon also wanted to put to rest any rumours that the Bulldogs have turned players away this year. It had been said that some of the players from the now defunct Sudbury Spartans had approached the Bulldogs but were denied a chance to play.

“We have not said no to anyone,” said Mathon regarding the rumours.

“We would consider anyone based on an individual basis. We are not going to add players just to add players but we would also never just decline a player either. If someone is approaching us to play for the team and they fill a need we have then we would definitely be willing to add them to the roster. But again we have not said no to anyone so far and I want to make that clear.”