Longhorns end Bulldogs season

The Oakville Longhorns set up on offence during Saturday's quarter-final contest in Oakville. Photo courtesy Eric Boutilier.

The Dogs traveled to Oakville Saturday to take on the Longhorns in NFC Quarter-Final action. In the end, they lost the game 41 - 12 to bring theirseason to an end. According to head coach Marc Mathon, the game didn't start off that bad, nor was it areflection of the effort or heart displayed by the Bulldogs.

In the end, the Dogs were beat by a very good receiver - QB duo that found the weakness in the Dogs defense as QB Tom Denison hooked up with receiver Vaughn Swart to score 4 times all from beyond 50 yards out. Those 4 plays alone accounted for 225 yards and 28 points.

"Our failure was not necessarily in our general approach to the game,because we did force them to adjust and we were able to contain their offense, but it was in our inability, defensively to stop Vaughn Swart, whohas seen time in NFL Europe and Tom Denison, who is a pretty good quarterback. Offensively, despite being able to move the ball earning 19 1st downs to Oakville's 16, we found ourselves inside their 15 yard line 5 times, turning the ball over 4 times while scoring the other. That is the bottom line," said Mathon. (Dogs offense gained 300 yards total offense / 50 yards rushing +250 yards in 16 completions on 33 attempts).

"Our successes and failures fall squarely on the shoulders of the playersand the coaches, there is no reason to try and determined whose fault the loss was. We got beat by a team that had something up on us and although it doesn't soften the sting of seeing the season come to an end, I think North Bay was well represented this year and we have something to build on," said Mathon.

The Dogs drove the ball on the opening drive all the way to the Oakville 7 yard line, only to have a very rare fumble by Ramakko save the Longhorns defense from being scored on early. Only a couple of plays later as the Longhorns were trying to get out, middle linebacker Anthony Gauthier intercepted a Tom Denison pass at the 10 yard line and scored to put the Dogs ahead early 6-0.

On the ensuing kick-off, the Longhorns drove out of their own end and tied the game with the first of four 50+ yard catch and run scoring play to Vaughn Swart. After a 20 yard Matt Gordon kick-off return the offense drove again into Longhorn territory and relied on Ricky Thompson's 60 yard punt topin the Longhorns deep in their own end. The Defense held again forcing the Longhorns into a punt situation. The defense applied pressure and speedy rookie Matt Bahm tackled the punter on their own 15 yard line, giving the Bulldogs an opportunity to score on avery short field. However, a great individual effort Longhorns defensive end Nik Tipuric batted a Jason Ferriera pass up and into the hands of teammate and Longhorn safety Marco Pereira who had nothing but 95 yards of open field to run and score.

What followed was nothing short of pure heart and determination as 255 pound Bulldogs Fullback Frank Devine chased down in fullsprint and tackled Pereira 80 yards later on the Dogs 15 to save the score.

"That was a defining moment in many people's minds for Frank Devine and I think everyone on the team is proud of his effort on the field Saturday night and appreciate his commitment to completion of that play, despite how easy it would have been to give up...He ran down a safety," said Mathon.

Unfortunately, the Longhorns offense with the short field were able to find the endzone and took the lead 13-6 on a two-yard run by Dan Seymour.The rest of the second quarter was not very kind to the Bulldogs as the offensive adjustments by the Longhorns put the Dogs defense in a bind and saw Denison hook up with Vaughn Swart for a 50 yard TD strike and Mike Hyatt for a 65 yard completion setting up a 5 yd TD pass to Will Mahew. In the 3rd quarter, Tom Denison found Vaughn Swart for two more TD passes of 65 and 60 yards each to round out the Longhorns scoring.

"If we could have eliminated our turnovers in their red zone and limited Swart to 2 scores, we would have won this game and that is the sorest part of seeing the score," said coach Mathon.

The highlights for the Bulldogs didn't stop with Devine's impressive rundown. Matt Gordon hauled in 9 catches for 148 yards and a TD with 4 passes taking him up through the middle of the field and finding blocks from offensive linemen getting themselves downfield in a hurry. Danny Gosselinand Dave Wilson each made great catches in tight spaces and held onto the ball despite taking a big hit. The offensive line showed it can play with any defensive line in the league...again.

On the defensive side Anthony Gauthier led the group in tackles with 6, while Dave Boyd recorded another sack. The defense lost All-Star Defensive Tackle Mike Gauthier early in the game to an injury to his achilles tendon, which put the load on veteran John Smales, who then also had to leave the game. This left the offensive line personel along with rookie Andrew Finlay to work the interior defensive line positions.

"I'm impressed with their warrior effort and their determination to perform well, but although those guys produced, playing both ways did wear on them as the game wore on. The sting of the loss in no less painful for me than it is for anyoneelse, but we we can't build anything with the negatives, we can only build with the positives," Mathon said.

Submitted to BayToday.ca