The third game of the triple header of the Football Day in the Bay on Saturday featured the undefeated, 4-0 Junior Bulldogs looking to continue their pursuit of a first place seeding. Their opponent, the TNT Express from Barrie beat the Bulldogs last year 35–8 and this year are once again a force to be reckoned with in the league with a very aggressive defense and a very mobile and slippery QB.
“We know that the they have a very mobile QB and their offense is designed to roll him out as a dual pass or run threat. And we’ve prepared to limit his effectiveness,” said head coach Marc Mathon.
Offensively, the Bulldogs’ are aware that their opponents Saturday were prepared to try to stop and limit #11 (Jonathan Warren)’s productivity as well as the Dog’s strong outside run game. On the first drive with the defensive backs giving Warren lots of cushion the Bulldogs opened the game with a short 5 yard completion to Warren and with the help of blocks by Evan Desrosiers, he turned it into a 57 yard gain to put the Bulldogs on the TNT 13 yardline.
“Right after that play they brought their free safety over to double team Warren and we were prepared for that,” said head coach Marc Mathon.
On the next play Warren’s outside run was limited to a 1 yard gain. But on the next play the Dogs offense ran away from Warren and with one less defender and great blocking by the offensive line and receivers, Matt Cirullo took the outside run in for a 13 yard TD score. And the Dogs were up 7–0.
Defensively, the Bulldogs started out with a test and on the ropes as the TNT offense put together a drive including a 45 yard pass completion to set them up on the Bulldogs 10 yardline. The defensive play calling became very aggressive and with a sack and 2 tackles for losses the opponents found themselves trying a field goal attempt from the Bulldogs 23 yard line. Philip Fortin and Weston Goulais broke through and deflected the kick up high and was caught short of the goal line by Conor Doyle who returned it to the 25 yard line.
On the new Bulldogs offensive drive with an extra player on Warren the ball was distributed to others with Parker Raymond, Matt Cirullo carrying the load. Nonetheless, Mason McGriskin found Jon Warren open on a play action pass for a 15 yard 1st down and Matt Cirullo continued to pound the middle behind the offensive line blocking to extend the drive. Adam Courchesne ran the ball down to the TNT 2 yard line and a first down after which Mason McGriskin pushed through for the 2nd score of the game behind a strong offensive line surge.
The defense forced a fumble on the next drive giving their offense the ball on the opponent’s 40 yard line the boys went to work again. Opening with short pass to Warren for 5 yard gain, kept the double team alive on him which opened up opportunities elsewhere. In the red zone again and looking for Warren the TNT double team struck with an interception.
The defense held the opponent’s offense and forced a punt which was returned 12 yards by Ethan Hurd put the offense in good field position again.
With less than a minute left in the half the offense put together a drive with strong inside running by Cirullo again to put the dogs on the TNT 11 yard line. With the defense flowing hard to the outside run coach Mathon called a play action pass with a bootleg roll out and Mason McGriskin found Jonathan Warren open in the endzone to close the half with a 21–0 lead.
In the second half the Dogs defense continued to tackle effectively and limit their gains. TNT’s QB showed he could not be limited to zero and earned himself a few first downs running the ball in open space.
“Our defense made him pay for his yards though and we did limit him to less than 50 yards which was our goal,” said Mathon.
The defense held and forced a punt. Obviously, double covering Warren with the free safety was the focus of the opponents defense, which the Dogs offense took advantage of seeing the offensive line carve out a big hole up the middle for Cirullo to rip off an 82 yard run getting tackled on 2 yard line. On the next play McGriskin found Jonah Tignanelli deep in the endzone to put the home team up 28–0.
They were successful in limiting Jonathan’s production in the 2nd half to only 11 yards, but the Dogs offense attacked from many other points on the field. Again the defense continued to hold and scored points as Jay Turnsek tackled the TNT ball carrier in his own endzone. On the ensuing drive QB Matt Desjardins took the reins of the offense to work a time consuming drive in the 3rd quarter. The drive featured strong running by Adam Courchesne, Cirullo and Matt himself as he gained 22 yards on the ground including a 15 yard touchdown run behind great team blocking.
Defensively, the domination continued and gave the Bulldogs possession yet again. Jacob Steringa came out for the Bulldogs and executed a good drive that ended on a fumble bu Cirullo in a botched exchange between him and Jon Warren.
“It was a play we wanted to run in a live situation and so I called it, but the timing was off....we’ll work on that in practice,” said Mathon.
Late in the 4th quarter, 2 plays later the TNT offense finally found a seam in the Dogs defense and scored from 35 yards out. After a successful 2 point convert the game ended with the Dogs advancing to 5–0 with the 37–8 win.
Matt Cirullo led the team on the ground with 159 yards rushing on 9 carries with 1 TD while Jon Warren gained 113 yards receiving and 1 TD.
McGriskin passed for 115 yards on 8 completions, while Matt Desjardins attempted 1 pass and completed it to Evan Desrosiers for a 10 yard gain.
Adam Courchesne gained 25 yards on 3 carries and a first down.
Totals for the day were 231 yards rushing on 20 carries for 3 TDs and 10 first downs plus 125 yards passing on 9 completions, 1 interception on 18 pass attempts generating 2 TDs and 6 first downs.
Also very notable was the defense led by Philip Fortin with 6 tackles, Jay Turnsek with 4 tackles and a safety, Conor Doyle with 3 tackles and 2 batted balls.
Weston Goulais recorded a sack and Ethan Hurd got himself an interception, a batted ball and a 62 yard kick-off return.
Michel Paquet also made a key knock down as well.
Bantam Bulldogs
The Bantam Bulldogs suffered their third defeat of the season in a closely contested game against the TNT Express to bring their record to 2 wins and 3 losses.
TNT was ready for our offense with a very quick defense, they contained our backfield very well, this was our first real test of the season and could have gone either way until the final whistle of the game. Although we lost the game, we seen a lot of positive things both on offense and defense, and we will continue to get better every week.
Riley Lavergne and Jeffery Crowe both scored a touchdown and Nathan Fok added two more on some long runs making the TNT defense miss tackles. On defense Peyton Killingsworth chased down some long runs to stop the TNT from scoring. Also on defense getting in on some tackles were Rhys Teeple, Colton Boucher and Nathan Wright also helping to stall the TNT offense.
Next weeks game is at the Steve Omischl Sports Complex against the Hamilton Varsity Ti-Cats at 1 p,m.
Football Day in the Bay Thank you
“On behalf of the North Bay Bulldogs family I’d like to thank the Nipissing Wild executive for accepting the proposal from the Bulldogs to put on this triple header game “Football Day in the Bay” event. This concept was originally conceived 3 years ago by our executive and finally came to fruition this year with the support of the Nipissing Wild. I want to thank all the Bulldogs volunteers who, despite the challenges they faced in the days leading up to the event and the day of, worked very hard to make this a success. We’d also like to thank the very kind Mr. & Mrs Oelrich who accepted our invitation to take part and help out. And finally, but not lastly, we’d like to extend a thank you to both our Mayor Al McDonald and our Deputy Mayor Sheldon Forgette for attending the event. Mayor Al kicked off the day with a well placed kickoff while the Deputy Mayor flipped the coin for the first game. I hope you guys enjoyed the day, as your presence was appreciated.”
Marc Mathon- President of North Bay Bulldogs Football Club