Their next opponent stands to be their toughest one of the season, but the Korah Colts intend to at least take some time to celebrate their latest win before looking ahead.
The Colts captured the Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA) senior football title on Saturday afternoon thanks to a 37-6 victory over North Bay’s Algonquin high school at Superior Heights.
A strong performance defensively, especially early on in the game, turned into a difference for the Colts in the victory.
“Our defence was excellent,” Korah coach Tom Annett said. “It took us a while on offence (to get going), but we got a lot of opportunities because (Algonquin) was going two and out a lot. Our D line has always done a great job stopping the run and our defensive backs played excellent today.”
“If our defence wasn’t stopping them, especially in that first quarter, it could have been a different story,” Annett added.
Algonquin held the Colts off the scoreboard through the opening quarter and had a defensive gameplan Korah wasn’t expecting.
“They did not come out defensively the way we thought they were going to,” Annett said.
“They had a good game plan and it took us a while on our side to figure out what they were doing,” Annett added. “Once we did, we started taking advantage of some of those things.”
Annett said he was pleased with how calm his team stayed in the game, especially early on.
“There’s a calm confidence about this team,” Annett said. “They know we’re going to figure it out. It worked out and it’s just the confidence that these guys have that they’re going to get the job done.”
Korah opened the scoring just over two minutes into the second quarter as Nathan Guizzetti scored on a three-yard touchdown run. The convert by Ty Koski on the play made it a 7-0 game.
Just over three minutes later, Guizzetti grabbed his second major of the day on a 30-yard run while Koski kicked the extra point to make it a 14-0 game.
With just under two minutes to go in the half, Guizzetti scored his third touchdown of the afternoon on a 71-yard run. Koski hit the convert to make the score 21-0.
Going into the half, Koski hit a 35-yard field goal to give Korah a 24-0 lead through the opening half.
Korah added to the lead just under five minutes into the third quarter on a four-yard touchdown run by Ethan Carchidi and convert on the play from Koski.
In the late stages of the third quarter, Korah made it a 37-0 game on a 57-yard pass and run from quarterback Zayn Murdoch to A.J. Coccimiglio.
Algonquin broke Korah’s shutout bid late in the fourth quarter on a one-yard touchdown tun by Jacob McGill.
Guizzetti finished the day with 189 yards rushing on 14 carries in the game.
Defensively for Korah, Koen Manchulenko had 3.5 tackles. Turner Dickinson had three tackles and an interception, while Carchidi had three tackles and also picked up 31 yards rushing on three carries offensively.
In addition to his touchdown run late, McGill had five tackles defensively for Algonquin. Mathieu Seguin added four tackles for the Barons.
Korah got to the NOSSA final thanks to a semifinal victory over Lo-Ellen of Sudbury by a 41-18 margin last weekend in the Sault.
Korah earned the Sault’s spot in NOSSA play after going 6-0 in the regular season and beating St. Mary’s in the city final.
The Barons went 4-0 in regular season play in North Bay this season and advanced to the NOSSA final thanks to a 31-6 win over West Ferris Secondary School in the Nipissing District Athletics final on Nov. 1.
Korah will be the northern Ontario rep in the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations bowl series later this month.
The Colts will take on Huron Heights, the York Region Athletic Association champion, in the National Capital Bowl on Nov. 25 in Windsor.
