The 2017 edition of the Bulldogs Youth Tackle Football League got underway this weekend in great fashion with once again another hugely successful day at Omischl Sports Complex in North Bay. With well over 100 kids divided into 4 teams each with 2 division groups, friends and family got to experience those kids falling in love with the game of football.
“I love the first week, I get a front row seat to watch so many kids, spread out across 8 groups, experience so many firsts….first tackle, first carry, first block, first catch, first pass, first sack, first touchdown... I swear I saw more than 1,000 smiles. It’s those smiles that fuel all of us in the Bulldogs family to do this every year,” said Bulldogs President Marc Mathon.
With each team wearing one of the club’s official team colors divided into 2 divisions, the grade 5 & 6 Tykes and the grade 7 & 8 Peewees. A great Saturday for football with temperatures in the 20s there were 100s of fans watching kids in black, white, yellow and gray jerseys.
In the first game, the Tyke Black and White teams fought to a draw with Tommy Pipe scoring for Black and Anthony Boyes scoring for White to see the hard-fought game end in a 6–6 tie.
The second part of the Black / White matchup saw the grade 7 & 8 kids do battle. White’s Quintin Vega-Goulais was too much to handle in game 1 as he scored twice on long runs and once on a long pass and run play. Even Wells also scored twice on runs while Riley Huter intercepted a pass and ran it back to score another TD. Black punter Noah Brooks launched a 35-yard punt to score a single to score for black in the 38-1 game in favor or White.
The Tyke game in the yellow / gray matchup was a shootout featuring 5 TDs by the familiar Nate Sinclair and saw rookie running back Mathieu Desbiens score his first ever TD on an exciting 63-yard run that started on the left and ended near the right sideline to get the fans on their feet. For Gray, Corbin Jones scored 4 TDs and kicked a convert while teammates Camden Vacon and Justin Marietti each added a major in the 48 – 38 Yellow win.
The yellow / gray matchup with grade 7 & 8's was tight for the first half as the teams went into halftime with a score of 8–6 in favor of yellow.
Drinkwalter scored for yellow and Owen Desrosier scored for Gray. The second half saw Desrosier score two more times with Nick Cote adding a major and Seth Hamilton kicking 2 converts to round out the scoring in the 28 – 8 Gray win.
